Empyric: Experiment Automation

Empyric is an experiment automation library, which offers easy access to instruments connected to a computer for custom Python scripting, as well as tools for building, executing and monitoring experiments in a very general framework.

• Instruments
  • Instrument
    • Instrument.supported_adapters
    • Instrument.meters
    • Instrument.lock
    • Instrument.knobs
    • Instrument.name
    • Instrument.presets
    • Instrument.postsets
    • Instrument.write()
    • Instrument.read()
    • Instrument.query()
    • Instrument.set()
    • Instrument.get()
    • Instrument.measure()
    • Instrument.connect()
    • Instrument.disconnect()
    • Instrument.set_connected()
    • Instrument.get_connected()
  • Supported Instruments
    • Virtual
    • Humans
    • Controllers
    • Supplies
    • Generators
    • Multimeters
    • Sourcemeters
    • Thermometers
    • Barometers
    • Spectrometers
    • Scopes
    • I/O
• Adapters
  • Adapter
    • Adapter.connect()
    • Adapter.write()
    • Adapter.read()
    • Adapter.query()
    • Adapter.disconnect()
  • Serial
    • Serial.list()
    • Serial.locate()
  • GPIB
  • USB
  • Socket
  • ModbusSerial
  • Modbus
  • Phidget
• Experiments
  • Experiment
    • Experiment.save()
    • Experiment.start()
    • Experiment.hold()
    • Experiment.stop()
    • Experiment.terminate()
  • AsyncExperiment
  • Alarm
  • Manager
    • Manager.run()
• Variables
  • Variable
    • Variable.last_evaluation
    • Variable.type
    • Variable.settable
    • Variable.value
    • Variable.setter_type_validator()
    • Variable.getter_type_validator()
  • Knob
    • Knob._settable
    • Knob.value
  • Meter
    • Meter._settable
    • Meter.value
  • Expression
    • Expression._settable
    • Expression.value
    • Expression.fft()
    • Expression.ifft()
    • Expression.carrier()
    • Expression.ampl()
    • Expression.demod()
  • Remote
    • Remote.value
    • Remote.get_type()
    • Remote.get_settable()
  • Parameter
    • Parameter._settable
    • Parameter.value
• Data Types
  • Type
  • Boolean
  • Toggle
  • Integer
  • Float
  • String
  • Array
  • recast()
• Routines
  • Routine
  • Set
  • Timecourse
  • Sequence
  • Optimization
  • Maximization
  • Minimization
  • SocketServer
  • ModbusServer
• Runcards
• GUI and Plotting
  • Plotter
    • Plotter.save()
    • Plotter.close()
    • Plotter.plot()
    • Plotter.numericize()
  • ExperimentGUI
    • ExperimentGUI.run()
    • ExperimentGUI.update()
    • ExperimentGUI.open_dashboard()
    • ExperimentGUI.toggle_hold()
    • ExperimentGUI.toggle_stop()
    • ExperimentGUI.end()

Empyric contains a collection of instruments that represent the functionality of physical instruments, which can be imported into Python scripts and used on their own to quickly start communicating with instruments for simple measurements.

Communication with instruments is facilitated with a set of adapters, which handle the boring details of inter-device communication. The most common modes of communication, such as serial, USB and. GPIB, are implemented through these adapters.

The user is typically interested in controlling/tracking a set of variables that is a subset of all the knobs/meters associated with the connected instruments. Empyric’s experiment control system makes it easy to access these variables of interest and enables automation through the highly generalized built-in routines (and even your own custom routines).

While it is straightforward to use Empyric to control your experiments through Python scripting, with the highly modular tools provided by this library, an easy alternative is to make use of the runcard formalism, which is very human readable (and makes for good experiment documentation on its own) and requires no Python knowledge.

In addition to helping you run experiments, Empyric also allows you to interact with and visualize your experiment through a simple GUI and plotting tool, which can be used in custom applications and can be invoked by using the experiment Manager class.

Indices and tables

• Index

• Module Index

• Search Page