Catalog the python lab automation landscape

[bilderbuchi]

To consolidate efforts, it's important to get an overview of the different available packages. These should be analysed w.r.t. various parameters (to be defined, but things like maintenance status, activity level, maturity, design goals, scope of features, number of instrument drivers, automated test availability, ...).

Edit: Spreadsheet can be found here!
(Ethercalc has moved, link fixed 2021-01-09; site seems to be slow)

Since this is quite the large task, I have, as a first step, compiled a list of any packages mentioned in the discussion in pymeasure/pymeasure#53, as well as some from my notes:

• https://github.com/ralph-group/pymeasure
• https://www.github.com/Galvant/InstrumentKit
• https://github.com/LabPy/lantz
• https://github.com/pyvisa/pyvisa
• https://github.com/python-ivi/python-ivi
• https://github.com/BBN-Q/Auspex
• https://github.com/dursobr/Pythics and https://github.com/avelo/Pythics
• https://github.com/Exopy/i3py and https://github.com/Exopy/exopy
• https://github.com/QCoDeS/Qcodes
• https://github.com/heeres/qtlab (Inspiration for QCodes)
• https://github.com/pazzarpj/Fixate
• https://github.com/pyinstruments/pyinstruments
• https://github.com/masonlab/labdrivers
• https://github.com/Ulm-IQO/qudi
• https://github.com/LaboratoireMecaniqueLille/crappy
• https://github.com/mabuchilab/Instrumental
• https://github.com/PALab/place
• https://github.com/uetke/experimentor
• https://github.com/MatthieuDartiailh/HQCMeas (superceded by Exopy)
• https://itom.bitbucket.io/
• https://github.com/p3trus/slave
• https://github.com/wking/pycomedi
• https://pythonhosted.org/PyDAQmx/
• https://github.com/ni/nidaqmx-python
• https://github.com/NSLS-II/bluesky
• https://github.com/NSLS-II/ophyd

Preliminary list of things to note (i.e. columns in a spreadsheet) when testing packages

• Name
• One-sentence/paragraph description (e.g. from Github project description or README)
• Homepage
• Documentation URL
• nr. of commits/age, e.g. 5542/4y
• Date of latest commit
• Test system (approx. number of tests), e.g. pytest(700)
• scope: instrument/hardware communication?
• scope: live control of instruments?
• scope: running predefined procedures?
• scope: GUI/presentation layer?
• number of instrument drivers available
• types of compatible instruments (text based, register map, vendor DLL, COM protocol,...)
• unit support? (library used), e.g. yes(pint)
• License
• ... please suggest additional useful things to know.

[MatthieuDartiailh]

Please note that HQCMeas is the ancestor of Exopy and anything useful it was doing can be done in Exopy (with the exopy_hqc_legacy package installed).

[bilderbuchi]

Thanks, noted!

[Bruyant]

Hi,
you missed:
https://github.com/p3trus/slave

On the data acquisition side (DAQ cards) we have also:
https://github.com/wking/pycomedi
https://pythonhosted.org/PyDAQmx/
and a lot of vendors specifics packages

Why not putting all these projects in a spreadsheet?
I tested 3 or 4 of them I would be happy to put a feedback.

As I'm working a lot for my lab in python with the willingness to increase, it I can contributes some ressources (Engineers fro others French research team and trainee and maybe €€€) to have a long term supported framework.

[vascotenner]

This project also contains many drivers:
https://github.com/heeres/qtlab

[bilderbuchi]

Thank you, I have updated the first post.

Why not putting all these projects in a spreadsheet?
I tested 3 or 4 of them I would be happy to put a feedback.

Yes, that's a good plan. Let's start on developing a list of criteria to judge when testing packages (in the first post) to get a good, structured overview.
I don't know how to best host this - I guess markdown/wiki tables will become crazy at the size of table I am expecting. Google spreadsheet could be a good alternative, but I don't know if everybody is fine with that.

As I'm working a lot for my lab in python with the willingness to increase, it I can contributes some ressources (Engineers fro others French research team and trainee and maybe €€€) to have a long term supported framework.

This is very good to hear! I think (and others have agreed) that steady commitments will be essential.
I think at first if you can spare time to evaluate/test the different packages, and participate in discussions that would be great.

I think we should avoid reinventing the wheel, so if later on it turns out that there exists active project that is well-usable for general needs (maybe QCodes, exopy, lantz,..) that folks should just join and adapt/enhance (e.g. by porting existing drivers from other packages), that would be fine, too. I am guessing concentrating the available drivers would be a valuable contribution, but the first task is to come up with a good spec first, see #22, #9.

[Bruyant]

Spreadsheet started:
https://ethercalc.org/1anmq248ktu6

[MatthieuDartiailh]

Just a note Exopy is unlikely to ever contains instrument drivers, I3py will deal with instrument drivers. For the time being I3py does not contain any driver but the first ones are under way. The documentation about developing new drivers is quite complete, if anybody take time to actually read I will be happy to address any comment you may have.

[MatthieuDartiailh]

By the way I completed some info about I3py in the spreadsheet. Out of curiosity what do you have in mind with 'Transport layers abstraction' ?

[MatthieuDartiailh]

I would also mention that PyVisa does not have the ambitions to host standard drivers (the pyvisa-drivers is explicitely not that) however it provides a nice way to abstract over the transport layer for VISA based instrument (and with a bit more love pyvisa-py could be a good alternative to manually writing transport protocols).

[bilderbuchi]

@Bruyant great work! Did you notice the list of characteristics/columns that I put in the first post, that would probably be good to include/adapt.
edit: I added that and filled in pymeasure and instrumentkit entries

@MatthieuDartiailh Of course, having instrument drivers in a separate packages makes lots of sense (for reuse etc). Probably we should have two separate entries for exopy and i3py. I tried to be inclusive in the "scope" entries in the list in the OP, so that we can track also GUI solutions
"Transport layers abstraction": Maybe they meant which "protocols"(?) are supported in the background, what you called text based, register map, vendor DLL, COM protocol in the wiki document.
Yeah, the list I put together above also includes things that are more low level, like pyvisa, python-ivi, pycomedi.

[pbnjeff89]

I started filling out the record for masonlab/labdrivers, but I'd like to clarify what this field means:

running predefined procedures

Everything else is, as far as I'm aware, accurate. On the spreadsheet it looks like the labdrivers record has a discrepancy for the number of drivers, but to explain: we have a total of 9 drivers for various instruments, though only 2 could be categorized under the ones listed on the spreadsheet. We have drivers for a QuantumDesign dynacool (which we were able to write using pythonnet), a few Oxford instruments, Stanford Research Systems lock-ins, and a LakeShore temperature controller.

[bilderbuchi]

Thanks!

running predefined procedures

What I mean to convey is that the software in question has some built-in ability to define a measurement/acquisition sequence (e.g. loop five times: increase instrument_a voltage by 10 V, acquire instrument_b signal for 5 s, average, save results b,c,d) that can be called at will. I am open to suggestions of a better formulation.

Number of drivers: The primary measure is the overall number of drivers (I clarified the column name), I thought it would be useful to include the most popular brands so that people can get a better feel of the variety of devices supported.

[bklebel]

I was so free to add Cryostat-GUI and measureSequences to the spreadsheet.

I have to admit, when I looked at possibilities to control the devices we set up in our lab, I was discouraged to add new drivers to any of the mentioned frameworks (like pymeasure/InstrumentKit) by the rather complex architecture, and everything one has to learn about those packages and the way new drivers may be added, before being able to use 'my' instruments in this framework.
Only now that this project runs for a while, and I learned a lot about setting up something like this, I can appreciate these systems - before, I had never written object oriented python code, or much looked at code like this at all anyways. I think it will be very important, when attracting researchers to such projects, to educate them about the benefits of using and contributing to such a system from the start, compared to a 'quick and dirty' solution, where everything moves fast at first, and becomes quite painful just so late that it will be quite painful to switch at that point - especially if a considerable amount of effort invested would go to waste, as driver architectures are just too different.

regarding measureSequences:
it might not fall completely into this category here, as it only focuses on an abstract layer of running sequences parsed from Quantum Design sequence files (currently just from resistivity-PPMS). It is partially aimed at providing a basis for a fruitful collaboration between coding and non-coding researchers, as for example the pymeasure procedures seem rather hard to stomach for non-coding researchers, who might just want to do small changes.