Autonomous mobile robots for exploratory synthetic chemistry

Autonomous laboratories can accelerate discoveries in chemical synthesis, but this requires automated measurements coupled with reliable decision-making. Most autonomous laboratories involve bespoke automated equipment, and reaction outcomes are often assessed using a single, hard-wired characterization technique. Any decision-making algorithms must then operate using this narrow range of characterization data. By contrast, manual experiments draw on a wider range of instruments, and decisions are rarely taken based on one measurement alone. Here, a synthesis laboratory is integrated into an autonomous laboratory using mobile robots that operate equipment and make decisions in a human-like way. A modular workflow combines mobile robots, an automated synthesis platform, a liquid chromatography–mass spectrometer, and a benchtop nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. Robots share existing laboratory equipment with human researchers without monopolizing it or requiring extensive pre-programmed decision-making for orthogonal measurement data, enabling rapid experimental workflows. The framework is exemplified in exploratory synthetic chemistry, including host–guest chemistry and photochemical synthesis. This strategy is suited to exploratory chemistry that can yield multiple potential products, such as supramolecular assemblies, and is extended to an autonomous function assay by evaluating host–guest binding properties.

Tianwei Dai, Sriram Vijayakrishnan, Filip T. Szcygielski, Jean-François Ayme, Ehsan Simaei, Thomas Fellowes, Rob Clowes, Lyubomir Kotopov, Caitlin E. Shields, Zhengxue Zhou, John W. Ward, Andrew I. Cooper