Anatomy of a Science Use Case Design Pattern

Reducing human-in-the-loop requirements with machine-in-the-loop capabilities by connecting scientific instruments, robot-controlled laboratories and edge/center computing/data resources to enable autonomous experiments, self-driving laboratories, smart manufacturing, and AI-driven design, discovery and evaluation is an inherent open or closed loop control problem. Therefore, the basic template for a science use case design pattern is defined in a loop control problem paradigm. The abstract science use case design pattern consists of a behavior and a set of interfaces in the context of performing a single or a set of experiments in an open or closed loop control. Such an abstract definition creates universal patterns that describe solutions free of implementation details.

Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 show two different loop control problems. Fig. 4 describes a closed loop control of an experiment that performs a test with some feedback to an experiment controller running the test. Fig. 5 describes a multi-experiment workflow with a closed loop control of multiple experiments, each with their own closed loop control. There are a number of different loop control problems that the science use case design patterns systematize and categorize.