Artificial intelligence exploration of unstable protocells leads to predictable properties and discovery of collective behavior

Protocell models are used to investigate how cells might have first assembled on Earth. Some, like oil-in-water droplets, can be seemingly simple models, while able to exhibit complex and unpredictable behaviors. How such simple oil-in-water systems can come together to yield complex and life-like behaviors remains a key question. Herein, we illustrate how the combination of automated experimentation and image processing, physicochemical analysis, and machine learning allows significant advances to be made in understanding the driving forces behind oil-in-water droplet behaviors. Utilizing >7,000 experiments collected using an autonomous robotic platform, we illustrate how smart automation cannot only help with exploration, optimization, and discovery of new behaviors, but can also be core to developing fundamental understanding of such systems. Using this process, we were able to relate droplet formulation to behavior via predicted physical properties, and to identify and predict more occurrences of a rare collective droplet behavior, droplet swarming. Proton NMR spectroscopic and qualitative pH methods enabled us to better understand oil dissolution, chemical change, phase transitions, and droplet and aqueous phase flows, illustrating the utility of the combination of smart-automation and traditional analytical chemistry techniques. We further extended our study for the simultaneous exploration of both the oil and aqueous phases using a robotic platform. Overall, this work shows that the combination of chemistry, robotics, and artificial intelligence enables discovery, prediction, and mechanistic understanding in ways that no one approach could achieve alone.