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Preventing Accidental Mishandling of Samples in Air Sample Processing Systems

Preventing Accidental Mishandling of Samples in Air Sample Processing Systems

Caden McKee Carter
Master of Science (MS), University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies
05/2026
Control systems in research and development environments are built to carry out experimental processes, act as utility benches which provide supplementary processes for researchers, and prototype final production systems. These systems have their processes and parameters constantly adjusted as they develop: Researchers tweak the system as experiments evolve, and engineers add, change, or remove features as requirements change. The highly dynamic nature of these system’s processes can reduce operator and designer familiarity with the system, which risks introducing process faults, equipment damage, contamination of sensitive analysis samples, and other undesirable incidents as operators control the system. We focus on addressing this reduction of system awareness in research systems which handle air samples, providing a graph model which tracks the contents of the system's plant over time as new control commands are issued. Using this model, we expose interfaces that allow the system’s control software to prevent incidents before they occur, and provide new visibility to operators, enabling them to make better informed control decisions.

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Open Access
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