Autonomous microfluidic labs: progress and prospects

Abstract

Global challenges such as climate change, escalating energy demands, and health equity require new scientific innovations able to deliver timely solutions. Self-driving laboratories (SDLs) combine robotics and lab automation with artificial intelligence to efficiently explore complex experimental spaces, reduce human effort, and speed up discovery through intelligent experimentation. Central to this transformation is responsible research acceleration (RRA). This ensures that advances are reproducible, transparent, and resource-efficient, and lays the foundation for sustainable innovation. Microfluidics, with its precise control of heat and mass transfer rates, minimal reagent use, and seamless integration with real-time sensing and automation, represents an ideal platform to embody RRA principles within SDLs. This perspective explores the synergy between microfluidics and autonomous experimentation, highlights key challenges, and proposes strategies for fully autonomous microfluidic workflows. We argue that flow-based platforms are essential to expedite discovery and that stronger academia–industry collaboration is critical in shortening the path from scientific insight to real-world implementation and impact.