Patent ID: 7395194

Claim:
An information management and control system comprising processing means for generating experiment instructions for test equipment, and an interface comprising means for receiving user inputs and means for performing analysis of empirical data, characterized in that, the processing means comprises: means for storing a library of reusable objects defining research process components, wherein the library comprises an experiment procedure object linked as a container to reusable objects defining an experiment procedure in terms of experiment tasks to be performed, equipment or materials resources to be used for each task, and parameters to be controlled for each resource, said reusable objects being: a plurality of task objects defining experiment procedure steps, said tasks objects being linked in a child relationship to one or more procedure objects, and a plurality of resource objects defining equipment or material to be used for steps of an experiment, including objects for equipment resources which are programmable and include each step and parameter involved in a program for the equipment, each resource object being linked to at least one associated task object in a child relationship and having attributes of user-inputted parameter configurations, and a design of experiment engine for generating an experiment run object by instantiating a plurality of said library objects linked by inheritance, wherein the engine comprises means for generating a run object defining test equipment instructions for an experiment run, and for generating a subsequent run object for each variation of an experiment, wherein the engine comprises means for allowing selection of a procedure object, and for automatically retrieving all other objects linked by inheritance to the selected procedure object, in which one of m procedure objects is linked to up to p task objects, and each task object is linked with up to q resource objects.