(12 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Liverpool, UK – 7 August 2025
1. Various of Kuka mobile robots performing experiments in lab
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mustakim Hasnath, The Associated Press: ++PART OVERLAID BY CUTAWAYS++
"Imagine walking into a science lab and seeing five robots doing all the science, not just assisting, but planning, running, and analysing all the chemical experiments by themselves. That’s what’s happening here at the University of Liverpool’s Department for Chemistry. The robots in this room are fully autonomous AI-powered robotic chemists, such as the one behind me. You might be able to see it performing some tasks there. They can move freely around this lab, setting up complex reactions and analysing those results, deciding what to try next without any human input whatsoever. Right now, they’re tackling some of the trickiest areas in synthetic chemistry, like drug synthesis and photochemical reactions. These tasks might take humans days to complete, but they’re doing them in a matter of minutes. And with five robots working in parallel, the long-term goal is to transform the pace of scientific discovery. Each robot learns from the data it collects, using machine learning to make smarter decisions every time. This isn’t about replacing researchers, it’s about freeing them from repetitive work so they can focus on breakthroughs. It’s early days, but the scientists here say this is where the future of chemistry is heading."
3. Various of Kuka mobile robots performing experiments in lab
4. Various of scientists
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
In a chemistry lab at the University of Liverpool, five mobile robots known as KUKA Mobile Robots carry out and support a range of laboratory experiments.
Each unit is built on a wheeled base with an articulated robotic arm.
This design means it can navigate between benches, approach workstations, pick up materials such as vials or cases of samples, and place them with millimetre precision into different pieces of equipment.
The robots are part of a connected automation system.
Other machines in the lab are responsible for preparing chemical reactions, running them under controlled conditions, and analysing the results using techniques such as liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.
The mobile robots link these separate stages, transporting samples between instruments and ensuring experiments can run without constant human presence.
They are programmed and given specific instructions by researchers.
Once a task list is set, the robots can carry it out without supervision, moving autonomously along pre-mapped routes and communicating with other equipment to complete each stage.
This allows scientists to run complex workflows that would be too time consuming to manage manually.
Ram Vijayakrishnan, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Liverpool, says: “So the robot behind me over here is called the KUKA Mobile Robot. It’s primarily used to transport samples around. Inside this workshop, we also have different robots that are there to synthesise, to perform reactions, to synthesise them. And we also analysis robots, such as liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, and NMR spectroscopy as well.”
The lab is arranged so that the robots can operate in the same space as human researchers, avoiding obstacles and navigating safely between benches.
The aim is not to replace scientists but to integrate the machines into everyday laboratory work.
AP video by Mustakim Hasnath.
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