Patent ID: 7319907

Claim:
A medical system for analyzing a sample comprising: a first control level having at least one level-1 controller for moving through a sequence of first level states each associated with a unique first state index number, the first control level generating a first level command associated with one of the first level states; and a second control level having a level-2 controller for moving through a sequence of second level states each associated with a unique second state index number in response to the first level command and for sending a status report to the first control level when a level-2 condition that is defined in one of the second level states is fulfilled; wherein at least one of the first controller and the second controller sending or receiving signals to or from components of a medical system in response to the moving through the sequence of the first or second level states for controlling or sensing a status of the components; wherein the components of the medical system comprise sample aspiration components, flow cell components, transport mechanisms, and image acquisition components for urinalysis, and the second control level comprising: a first level-2 controller for controlling the sample aspiration components, wherein the first level-2 controller is the level-2 controller; a second level-2 controller for controlling the flow cell components; a third level-2 controller for controlling the transport mechanisms associated with sampling; and a fourth level-2 controller for controlling the image acquisition components.