Patent ID: 7027935

Claim:
A sample dispensing apparatus comprising a probe for sucking and ejecting a sample, a dispensing syringe for generating a pressure in said probe to suck and eject the sample, a dispensing flow passage connecting said probe and said dispensing syringe, and a control unit for controlling sucking and ejection operations of the sample, the apparatus further comprising: at least one pressure sensor for detecting a pressure in said dispensing flow passage; pressure value storing means for time-serially storing output values of said pressure sensor during an operation of dispensing the sample; storage means for storing a reference database consisted of time-serial output values of said pressure sensor, which are obtained when the sample is normally sucked or ejected by said probe; and determining means for determining an abnormality of sample dispensing by comparing the Mahalanobis distance calculated from both comparison data prepared based on the output values of said pressure sensor time-serially stored in said pressure value storing means and said reference database, with a preset threshold.