Polybot—An AI-Guided Robotic Laboratory Advancing Polymer Innovation for Sustainability

An autonomous laboratory combines high-throughput robotic experimentation and characterization with data-driven modeling to accelerate the search for optimal formulations and processing conditions. While self-driving laboratories have seen significant advancements in fields like pharmaceuticals, hard materials, and organic small molecules, the development of such systems for polymeric materials remains relatively nascent. Designing and synthesizing functional polymers with targeted properties poses unique challenges due to their complex, nonlinear structure-property relationships. Key processes, such as predictive design, experimental refinement, and validation, are traditionally labor-intensive and time-consuming, making it difficult to balance accuracy and efficiency. We have been developing an autonomous discovery laboratory, named Polybot, that allows us to rapidly go from a polymer material concept to realized manifestations of final, testable materials targeted at relevant properties. In this talk, I'll talk about the recent research conducted with our self-driving lab for advancing polymer innovation for sustainability.