ATLAS - Automated high-throughput platform suite for accelerated molecular systems discovery

A robotic laboratory at Imperial College London will automate the synthesis and testing of new materials, running experiments around the clock without human hands. The design space for new materials—from medicines to plastics to battery components—is astronomically large. Testing even a fraction of the possibilities manually would take decades. ATLAS (Automated high-Throughput pLatform Suite) will combine three robotic stations—two for synthesis, one for screening—with automated characterisation equipment that can handle hundreds of samples. Computational modelling will direct which experiments to run, closing the loop between prediction and measurement. If ATLAS works as intended, it will dramatically accelerate the discovery of sustainable polymers, clean energy materials, and new drug formulations. Instead of researchers spending months testing one compound at a time, the platform could screen thousands in parallel, while improving reproducibility by removing human variability. The impact would be felt in manufacturing processes, pharmaceutical supply chains, and energy storage systems—the infrastructure that quietly underpins modern life. This is applied engineering, not fundamental science: the goal is to build a working tool that speeds up materials discovery directly.