automation
/ aw-toh-MAY-shun /
Picture a dishwasher versus washing every dish by hand: the machine does the same steps the same way, every cycle, without tiring or getting bored. Automation in the lab is that idea applied to analysis — letting machines carry out the repetitive hands-on steps that a chemist would otherwise do one by one.
More precisely, automation means using mechanical, robotic, and computerised systems to perform analytical tasks — pipetting, diluting, injecting samples, running instruments, recording data — with little or no human intervention. It ranges from a simple autosampler that loads vials in turn, to robotic workstations that prepare hundreds of samples unattended overnight.
Automation improves throughput, frees skilled staff for thinking rather than pipetting, and often improves precision because a machine repeats each step identically. Its caveats are real: it demands careful method validation and upkeep, an error in the program is faithfully repeated across every sample, and the best automation removes drudgery without removing the human judgement needed to spot when something has gone wrong.
An autosampler on an HPLC holds a tray of 100 vials; overnight it injects each one in turn, runs the separation, and logs every chromatogram, so the chemist arrives in the morning to a full set of results instead of standing at the instrument all day.
Machines do the repetitive steps; people keep the judgement.
Automation reduces random slips but not systematic error: if the method itself is biased, a robot will reproduce that bias flawlessly across every sample.