The Photon Factory currently operates four synchrotron beamlines for protein crystallography and two more beamlines are scheduled to be constructed in the next years. Over the last years these beamlines have been upgraded and equipped with a fully automated beamline control system based on a robotic sample changer. The current system allows for remote operation, controlled from the user's area, of sample mounting, centering and data collection of pre-frozen crystals mounted in Hampton-type cryo-loops on goniometer head. New intuitive graphical user interfaces have been developed so as to control the complete beamline operation. Furthermore, algorithms for automatic sample centering based on pattern matching and X-ray beam scanning are being developed and combined with newly developed diffraction evaluation programs in order to complete entire automation of the data collection.
