A robotic platform for flow synthesis of organic compounds informed by AI planning

The synthesis of complex organic molecules requires several stages, from ideation to execution, that require time and effort investment from expert chemists. Here, we report a step toward a paradigm of chemical synthesis that relieves chemists from routine tasks, combining artificial intelligence-driven synthesis planning and a robotically controlled experimental platform. Synthetic routes are proposed through generalization of millions of published chemical reactions and validated in silico to maximize their likelihood of success. Additional implementation details are determined by expert chemists and recorded in reusable recipe files, which are executed by a modular continuous-flow platform that is…

• DA
  Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

  Awards: W911NF-16-2-0023, ARO W911NF-16-2-0023
• DS
  Defense Sciences Office, DARPA

  Award: ARO W911NF- 16-2-0023;
• AR
  Army Research Office

  Awards: W911NF-16-2-0023, W911NF