Automation can transform productivity in research activities that use liquid handling, such as organic synthesis, but it has made less impact in materials laboratories, which require sample preparation steps and a range of solid-state characterization techniques. For example, powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) is a key method in materials and pharmaceutical chemistry, but its end-to-end automation is challenging because it involves solid powder handling and sample processing. Here we present a fully autonomous solid-state workflow for PXRD experiments that can match or even surpass manual data quality. The workflow involves 12 steps performed by a team of three multipurpose robots, illustrating the power of flexible, modular automation to integrate complex, multitask laboratories.
@article{arxiv.2309.00544,
title = {Modular, Multi-Robot Integration of Laboratories: An Autonomous Solid-State Workflow for Powder X-Ray Diffraction},
author = {Amy. M. Lunt and Hatem Fakhruldeen and Gabriella Pizzuto and Louis Longley and Alexander White and Nicola Rankin and Rob Clowes and Ben Alston and Lucia Gigli and Graeme M. Day and Andrew I. Cooper and Sam. Y. Chong},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.00544},
year = {2023}
}