Autonomous Droplet Navigation via Model-Based Reinforcement Learning: Zero-Shot Transfer and Emergent Dynamics

Self-driving laboratories (SDLs) are transforming chemical and materials discovery through closed-loop automation, yet automated infrastructure for physical manipulation of soft, deformable matter remains beyond current robotic platforms. A critical instance is autonomous droplet transport on an open surface, where contact-angle hysteresis, capillary pinning, and surface heterogeneity produce partially observable dynamics that pose significant challenges for classical model-based controllers. We introduce the first robotic platform for closed-loop autonomous liquid droplet navigation on an open, unconfined surface using model-based reinforcement learning. A two-axis tilting board coated with a thin silicone oil film drives the droplet, while an overhead camera provides real-time feedback. A learned policy was trained on just 50 to 150 physical episodes depending on geometric complexity, without simulation or analytical models. Beyond performance alone, the platform demonstrates three capabilities of interest to the SDL community: it robustly transfers zero-shot to unseen geometries; it autonomously discovers an oscillatory depinning strategy to free the droplet when it sticks; and it completes its full training pipeline in under 90 minutes. These results extend reinforcement-learning manipulation from rigid microrobots to deformable soft-matter systems for next-generation SDLs.