How could the digital and cross-linked laboratory of the future look like? Smartlab strives to help answering this question. It is a cooperation between academia and industry with the goal to enhance the automation and networking of lab tasks and machinery. Noack Laboratorien GmbH is happy to participate in this project since 2018.

Together with the Institute for Technical Chemistry (TCI) of the Leibniz University Hannover we work on combining digitalization and manpower. Even though some tasks cannot entirely be performed by hardware, digitalization can make processes more time-efficient and frees technicians from monotone activities: Smart glasses support the personnel in examining and rating effects of substances on plants. Counting algorithms help immensely with the determination of colony, collembola and plant leaf numbers. Digitalization also adds an extra level of control: QR code-based identification and registration of equipment and chemicals completes the documentation and prevents using restricted equipment or expired substances and minimizes the risk of mistakes.