BOSTON—Tobor, in its gray outfit, had been showing off its nimble limbic moves, as if dancing. It quickly became the buzz at the 2026 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) International Conference and Exhibition, held in Boston Feb. 7–11. Several amused spectators took selfies with Tobor. But after about 15 min, Tobor’s circuits had heated up, and it sat on a chair, looking tired.
Tobor is a humanoid robot built in China but programmed in the US, said Ainur Nygmet, a Toborlife AI employee who had been controlling the bot’s movements via a virtual reality headset. The goal is to make Tobor capable of doing tasks that human scientists can easily perform. “We are especially focused on building robots that are capable of working in dangerous laboratory conditions,” she said.
Tobor wasn’t the only robot that was engaging attendees at SLAS. A robotic dog from Boston Dynamics also made an appearance.
But the real deal was the 100-plus companies, including industry leaders Hamilton and HighRes Biosolutions, that exhibited robots, automated systems, and artificial intelligence platforms used in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and biotech sectors. Oscillating automated pipettes, robotic arms that can pick up vials, and DNA- and RNA-extraction machines were seen across the corporate booths on the show floor.
A Boston Dynamics robotic dog entertains attendees at the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening International Conference and Exhibition in Boston on Feb. 9. Credit:
Katie Odgaard
In the software realm, agentic AI models, platforms that can serve as assistants for researchers, also stood out. Executives at the HighRes booth were busy demonstrating the latest version of its agentic AI platform, Cellario, which integrates with automated laboratory equipment and tools.
Lab Donkey, a British firm whose mascot is a donkey wearing a lab coat, advertised similar services. Its platform manages workflows and automates laborious, often tedious, lab work, such as sample preparation.
Tobor, a humanoid robot, sits on a chair at the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening International Conference and Exhibition in Boston on Feb. 10. Credit:
Aayushi Pratap/C&EN
Alan Rosen, an AstraZeneca scientist who works with libraries of chemical compounds, has attended multiple SLAS conferences over the years. To him, the event looked less busy than usual. “It seems a little subdued. It’s not as bustling. Even the parking lot is just somewhat full,” Rosen said. He already uses an automated platform to handle compounds and was on the lookout for a robotic cell-culture machine. “I don’t do cell culture anymore, but it interests me if those machines have improved over the years,” he said.
Srusti Sain, an automation engineer at Lila Sciences, which came out of stealth last year to conduct science in AI-enhanced labs, was attending her first SLAS exhibition, and she couldn’t have been more excited. “There are so many cool things and new things that I have never seen,” she said. Sain said she was particularly intrigued by 100XBIO’s liquid handlers and cell cytometry machines, which capture large volumes of data from small numbers of cells.
Meanwhile, Thomas Kinnear, an automation engineer at the big biotech firm Regeneron, was happy to see a machine he had helped develop at one of his previous jobs. Companies like Regeneron are major customers of SLAS exhibitors. “It’s great that we, as consumers, can interact with the engineers who design these machines and push the product’s limits,” Kinnear said. “This is our shot to have influence on the industry and what might come next.”
Chemical & Engineering News
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date: 2026-02-13 08:44:00