Automated freezers, like Hamilton BiOS, are used in high throughput biobanks to reduce the time needed to store and retrieve the samples, and maintain high-quality samples. OpenSpecimen is integrated with Hamilton BiOS at the University of Maryland and can be integrated with other freezers too.

Use cases supported

1. Specimen storage: When a specimen is stored in Hamilton BiOS freezer, OpenSpecimen will send a message to BiOS pre-register the barcodes. 
2. Specimen retrieval: You can select a list of specimens and click on "Actions→Retrieve" to send a message to BiOS to retrieve the specimens. 

Use cases not supported

1. Temperature changes in BiOS
2. Communication is only one-way right now, i.e. OpenSpecimen to BiOS. OpenSpecimen won't be updated if you retrieve a specimen directly in BiOS. This is due to the lack of appropriate "push" APIs in BiOS.

Workflow