Navigating the landscape of modular reconfigurable laboratory automation in chemistry

Abstract

Easily reusable lab automation is the next frontier in automating experiments. Equipment must be repurposed often for experiments, making the current generation of lab automation too costly and too complicated to apply. However, with the rise of platforms in which modules encapsulate operations, connections and equipment can be swapped around quickly and, in some cases, automatically to perform different experiments. This article reviews the current state of the art of reconfigurable modular laboratory automation systems in chemistry. We discuss the key barriers of adoption of these systems and the importance of standardized benchmarks to compare capabilities of different platforms. We provide an outlook on the most promising research paths, including the possibility that AI systems can help guide the layout of processes and operations, leading to improved efficiency and possibly new process layouts. We conclude that the field of laboratory automation should continue to advance, benefiting chemists and the broader scientific community.