Mara: Self-Driving Lab

Mara is specialized autonomous robot system aimed to accelerate material development by combining automated pipetting, material characterization and machine-learned parameter determination.

Specifically, Mara is based on the Opentron OT2 pipetting robot, supplemented with peripheral machine characterization and sample transport systems. The robot’s goal for the next year is to be able to synthesize and analyze the properties of Lead-Halide Perovskites, which are fundamental to solar cells.

At its current stage, Mara has already successfully demonstrated Lead-Halide Perovskite synthesis by combining and heating precursors prepared by humans. The automated PL (photoluminescence) device used to characterize the perovskites is still in the process of being integrated, due to issues with the spectrometer’s Ocean-direc software.

We are also preparing new projects to further push the limits of the Opentron system. These include a custom heater module for improved perovskite synthesis (up to 150C instead of 96C by Opentron’s heater module) and an external robotic arm to transport lab plates. With these in place, Mara will be on track to become a fully automated system without human-in-the-loop operations.