Patent ID: 7850914

Claim:
A modular instrument system for transporting and processing specimens held by specimen-containers arranged in a plurality of specimen-container racks, said modular instrument system being adapted for use in a clinical workcell comprising a plurality of adjacent modular instrument systems that pass said specimen-containers racks between or among themselves to carry out various processes on each specimen, said modular instrument system comprising: (a) a specimen-processing section for processing at least a portion of a specimen extracted from a specimen container, said specimen-processing section including a specimen extracting station operatively associated with said specimen-processing section; and (b) a specimen-transport module for transporting a specimen-container rack (i) to and from said specimen-extracting station, and (ii) to and from each of a pair of spaced rack-transfer locations at which (1) a specimen-container rack can be positioned to be transferred directly to an adjacent specimen-transport module of an adjacent modular instrument system, and (2) a specimen-container rack can be received by said specimen-transport module directly from another specimen-transport module of an adjacent modular instrument system for transport by said container-receiving, specimen-transport module, said specimen-transport module comprising an X/Y drive mechanism for transporting specimen-containers racks (i) to and from said specimen-extracting station, and (ii) to and from either of said pair of rack-transfer locations.