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.

翻译：自动化虽能提升使用液体处理（如有机合成）等研究活动的生产力，但在需要样品制备步骤及多种固态表征技术的材料实验室中影响较小。例如，粉末X射线衍射（PXRD）是材料与药物化学领域的核心方法，但其端到端自动化因涉及固态粉末处理与样品加工而颇具挑战。本文提出一种用于PXRD实验的全自主固态工作流程，其数据质量可媲美甚至超越手动操作。该流程包含12个步骤，由三台多用途机器人协同完成，彰显了灵活模块化自动化在集成复杂多任务实验室中的强大能力。