Intelligent automation: transforming bioprocessing through data-driven control
In a landscape where efficiency, scalability, and quality are critical, automation is no longer just about doing more; it’s about understanding more. Olivia Dell-Price, Pharmaceutical Automation Specialist at Labman, explores how the future of biomanufacturing is becoming intelligent, connected and data-driven.
The role of intelligent automation in bioprocessing
Across the UK, biomanufacturing is entering a new era, one defined not only by biological innovation but by intelligent automation and data-driven insight. As organisations strive to scale complex bioprocesses efficiently and sustainably, the ability to capture, interpret, and act on process data in real time has become a powerful differentiator.
At its heart, bioprocessing is about control: of conditions, timing, inputs, and outputs. Yet even today, many production environments rely on a patchwork of manual monitoring, disconnected systems, and limited visibility of the data driving their results. The next leap forward in productivity will come not simply from faster equipment, but from automation that enables understanding - intelligent systems that convert raw data into actionable decisions.
Connecting biology, data, and automation
Modern biomanufacturing operates at the intersection of disciplines. The integration of robotics, sensor technologies, and software analytics allows processes once bound by human bandwidth to operate with precision and consistency around the clock. Automated imaging, sampling, and analytical tools are increasingly being designed with interoperability in mind, allowing data to flow freely between instruments and systems.
The real opportunity lies in integration: connecting these individual data points into a coherent, accessible digital ecosystem. By embedding feedback loops, automated systems can adapt to process drift, optimise parameters in real time, and ensure that quality-by-design is not a theoretical concept but a practical reality.
Demonstrating intelligent integration in action
This vision is at the heart of the AI-optimised BALANCE (Bioreactor Automation for Learning and Adaptive Networked Control of Experiments) platform. BALANCE is a 20-month international collaboration between CPI (UK), Basetwo (Canada), Nicoya (Canada), and Labman (UK), supported by a $2 million grant from Innovate UK and NRC IRAP.
The BALANCE project aims to create a demonstrator platform that brings together smart bioreactor technologies, real-time sensing, AI-driven optimisation, and advanced modular automation. Labman is designing and building a modular automated bioreactor sub-sampler for flexible aseptic sampling. The sampler integrates with a Labman sample prep module for liquid handling and centrifugation. This module integrates seamlessly with Nicoya’s Alto SPR biosensor to deliver instant feedback on yield and quality, providing adaptive control of the process in real time.
Underpinning the system is Basetwo’s digital twin technology - a machine learning platform that interprets real-time data from biosensors and bioreactors to make intelligent decisions about process conditions. Together, these technologies form a closed-loop control system that continuously optimises upstream bioprocessing, predicting outcomes and reducing the need for costly lab-based testing. CPI will lead system validation, ensuring the platform’s technical robustness, scalability, and commercial viability.
By combining automation, data, and AI, the BALANCE system represents a major step forward in the digitisation of biologics manufacturing - accelerating yield, scalability, and speed to market for next-generation therapeutics.
Powering progress through intelligent automation
For Labman, BALANCE is more than a project; it’s a glimpse of the future of bioprocessing, where engineering and biology converge to enable adaptive, data-led discovery. It demonstrates the potential of intelligent, flexible automation to transform complex scientific processes, creating systems that don’t just perform but learn.
This spirit of innovation sits at the core of how Labman approaches automation: designing systems that evolve with their users, integrate seamlessly into wider workflows, and make science more connected, insightful, and efficient.
As the UK strengthens its biomanufacturing capability, intelligent integration will be key to unlocking its full potential. The future belongs to those who use automation not simply to do, but to understand, turning data into decisions, and decisions into discovery.
Meet the Labmant team at bioProcessUK on 25-27 November in Newcastle to discover how intelligent automation is shaping the next era of UK bioprocessing.