NOMAD CAMELS - Poster FAIR DI 2024 - A Configurable Application for Measurements, Experiments and Laboratory Systems

NOMAD CAMELS (CAMELS) is a configurable, open-source software designed to facilitate lab automation. It performs measurements and saves fully self-describing experimental data. It was first developed in the field of experimental physics, where a plethora of measurement instruments are employed in a multitude of experimental setups and measurement protocols that are subject to frequent alteration. CAMELS provides a graphical user interface (GUI) that enables users to configure experiments without the necessity of programming expertise or a comprehensive grasp of instrument communication. CAMELS translates user-defined measurement protocols into standalone executable Python code, thereby ensuring complete transparency regarding the actual measurement sequences. CAMELS' API allows for full integration in already existing lab automation. It is possible to integrate with existing large-scale, distributed control systems, such as EPICS natively. The design of CAMELS is focused on the comprehensive recording of data and metadata. When shared with others, data produced with CAMELS allow for a complete understanding of the measurement and the resulting data in accordance with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) principles. This work is funded by the NFDI consortium FAIRmat - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project 460197019