(1369-B) Robotic Assembly of Microliter Liquid/Gel Chambers for Autonomous Design of Soft Materials

Abstract: We present a novel robotic platform for the automated assembly of fully-sealed liquid/gel sample chambers with < 20 μL volume. The chambers have transparent polycarbonate windows, and the metallic body allows for precise temperature control, making it ideal for light/x-ray/neutron scattering measurements of thermally-induced structural, dynamic and energetic transitions in complex fluids.

One major advantage of this robotic platform is that it is sufficiently compact and self-contained to be implemented inside an experiment end station of a light source (e.g., a neutron or synchrotron x-ray facility). This implementation is impactful in several key ways. Firstly, it eliminates the time-consuming process of sample preparation and exchange during a beamtime (allocated time at a light source facility) when time is an essential factor. Secondly it improves data reliability and experiment repeatability by reducing experimental artifacts caused by human handling of the samples, especially biological samples that can be sensitive to body temperature, such as synthesized Intrinsically Disordered Protein Polymer (IDPP) solutions. Lastly, when integrated with the existing data infrastructure at most light source facilities that offers automatic data analysis and AI-assisted result interpretation, the robotic platform will be the last missing component for fully autonomous discovery of soft materials, i.e., the AI will prepare the sample, measure the sample, and interpret the results to come up with plans for the next sample. This self-driving workflow can also be adapted at small industrial settings and pave the way for advancing automation-focused research and developing functional artificial biomaterials.