Overlord™ software is the core to all of our laboratory automation software products. It provides instrument control and the scheduling required to run an automation workcell and is used in laboratories throughout the world. Overlord™ is completely scalable and is used on the simplest systems, loading a single instrument, to the most complex, controlling the work flow around an enormous workcell with several dozen instruments. It is supplied ‘per socket’, to ensure a cost effective solution for all sizes of work cell. A socket is a connection to an instrument or a data source such as an instrument or web service.

Overlord is the first laboratory automation scheduler and control software that seamlessly contains both dynamic and static scheduling on one platform. Its simple ‘drag-and-drop’ interface enables complex routines to be rapidly and easily developed.

Key features

Error free automation, saving you time and money: your automated system is up and running in the shortest possible time. Once running, Overlord™ provides the highest level of reliability requiring minimal attention.
Which scheduler to use: a thing of the past. Overlord™ always presents the optimal solution – guaranteeing your laboratory the highest possible throughput.
Instrument drivers to control equipment: To get you up and running right away. If a driver is not available, it can be rapidly developed, at a low cost and added to our library. See full Instrument driver list.
Reliable, hassle free assay automation: Overlord™ works 24/7. Advanced error recovery ensures that, should an error be encountered, the system can react and attempt to continue the run, without any intervention.
Operators love using the software: Overlord™ is quick and easy to use – load the labware, hit run and walk away!
The integration and scheduling software of choice: from simply loading an instrument with plates or the most complex assay involving many instruments and multiple robots.
The most cost effective solution: priced ‘per socket’ (the number sockets is the number of instruments being controlled) makes Overlord™ cost effective no matter the size or complexity of the application.
Available through many systems integrators and instrument vendors or direct from PAA: you can benefit from Overlord™ – specify that your systems integrator uses Overlord™, as your automation platform.

Product Description

The Overlord suite of laboratory automation system control software is the most extensive available for laboratory automation. Offering both static, time-related and event driven scheduling options, Overlord™ allows assays to be run as efficiently as possible while obeying any critical constraints such as incubation times. Overlord can link all types of laboratory instrumentation from multiple vendors into a single, fully integrated system. See our Overlord Device Drivers list for full details of what we can control. If an instrument is not on the list, we have a Software Development Kit that allows you or us to simply get the instrument into Overlord or we can develop a diver for you at low cost, which is then added to the library.

Overlord can be configured to control any number of what we call Instrument Driver and Data Driver commands, illustrated in the image below. Instrument Driver commands allow us to interface with laboratory devices, such as a liquid handler, a plate reader or a dispenser to name but a few instrument types. We can control devices using their own native software or through direct control, basically whatever allows us to create the simplest integration with the required functionality. Our Data driver commands allow us to connect to a variety of data sources, either directly using the Microsoft ODBC components or in-directly through third-party software and increasingly, through a web-service. The number of drivers is increasing all of the time and the methods of integration changing as new technologies appear.