CPC G01N 35/00584 (2013.01) [G01N 35/025 (2013.01); G01N 35/04 (2013.01); G01N 35/026 (2013.01); G01N 2035/0403 (2013.01); G01N 2035/0406 (2013.01); G01N 2035/0439 (2013.01); G01N 2035/0441 (2013.01); G01N 2035/0491 (2013.01)] | 16 Claims |
1. A specimen measurement apparatus comprising:
a measurement unit configured to measure a specimen;
a detector configured to detect a container that can store the specimen; and
a movement mechanism comprising a first movement assembly, a motor, and an encoder,
the first movement assembly comprising
a rotatable table which comprises holders thereon each configured to hold a respective container, the motor being configured to rotate the rotatable table,
the encoder being configured to output an amount of drive by the motor, and the movement mechanism being configured to move the container relative to the detector by rotating the rotatable table, and
a holding mechanism configured to discard the container held on the rotatable table from the rotatable table;
wherein
the detector configured to detect the container in a state where the movement mechanism keeps moving the container relative to the detector without stopping the relative movement of the container to the detector, the detector is configured to continuously perform sensing while the movement mechanism moves the container relative to the detector without temporarily stopping a relative movement between the container and the detector,
wherein
the specimen measurement apparatus further comprises a controller programmed to:
in response to the specimen measurement apparatus being started, confirm that no container is held on any of the holders in an initial operation of the specimen measurement apparatus by:
controlling the movement mechanism to rotate the rotatable table without stopping the rotation until all of the holders passing through the detector to detect whether at least one container is held on any of the holders by the detector in the initial operation of the specimen measurement apparatus,
while the rotatable table is rotating in the initial operation, determining whether or not a position of rotation by the movement mechanism is a detection position based on the amount of drive by the motor outputted from the encoder, the detection position represents a position where the detector is capable of detecting the container held on the holder, and storing a detection result, from the detector, of whether or not the container is present when the position of rotation is the detection position, and
in case that the container is present, in response to stopping the rotation of the rotatable table, performing an operation to control the holding mechanism to discard the container held on the rotatable table from the rotatable table.
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