Redirecting to original paper in 30 seconds...
Click below to go immediately or wait for automatic redirect
📄 Abstract
Abstract: Surface wettability is a critical design parameter for biomedical devices,
coatings, and textiles. Contact angle measurements quantify liquid-surface
interactions, which depend strongly on liquid formulation. Herein, we present
the Robotic Autonomous Imaging Surface Evaluator (RAISE), a closed-loop,
self-driving laboratory that is capable of linking liquid formulation
optimization with surface wettability assessment. RAISE comprises a full
experimental orchestrator with the ability of mixing liquid ingredients to
create varying formulation cocktails, transferring droplets of prepared
formulations to a high-throughput stage, and using a pick-and-place camera tool
for automated droplet image capture. The system also includes an automated
image processing pipeline to measure contact angles. This closed loop
experiment orchestrator is integrated with a Bayesian Optimization (BO) client,
which enables iterative exploration of new formulations based on previous
contact angle measurements to meet user-defined objectives. The system operates
in a high-throughput manner and can achieve a measurement rate of approximately
1 contact angle measurement per minute. Here we demonstrate RAISE can be used
to explore surfactant wettability and how surfactant combinations create
tunable formulations that compensate for purity-related variations.
Furthermore, multi-objective BO demonstrates how precise and optimal
formulations can be reached based on application-specific goals. The
optimization is guided by a desirability score, which prioritizes formulations
that are within target contact angle ranges, minimize surfactant usage and
reduce cost. This work demonstrates the capabilities of RAISE to autonomously
link liquid formulations to contact angle measurements in a closed-loop system,
using multi-objective BO to efficiently identify optimal formulations aligned
with researcher-defined criteria.
Key Contributions
RAISE is a closed-loop, self-driving laboratory that integrates liquid formulation, droplet transfer, image capture, and contact angle measurement. It uses Bayesian Optimization to iteratively explore new formulations based on previous measurements, enabling efficient discovery of optimal liquid formulations for desired surface wettability.
Business Value
Accelerates the discovery and optimization of materials with specific surface properties, leading to faster product development cycles in industries like coatings, textiles, and biomedical devices.