University of York

TARMAC: A Taxonomy for Robot Manipulation in Chemistry

An empirical action-level taxonomy for describing, comparing, and reusing physical manipulation primitives in chemistry laboratories.

Kefeng Huang Alice E. Martin Jonathon Pipe Tianyuan Wang Barnabas A. Franklin Chris Horbaczewskyj Andy M. Tyrrell Ian J. S. Fairlamb Jihong Zhu

School of Physics, Engineering and Technology & Department of Chemistry, University of York

Two Franka robot arms assembling a separating-funnel apparatus
Bimanual setup demonstrates how TARMAC primitives compose into laboratory apparatus assembly and recovery.
Dobot robot stirring solution on a hotplate
Dobot validation setup for hotplate stirring in a laboratory workspace.
Object detection output for broken glass fragments
Perception output localizes broken-glass fragments for cleanup.

Robotic demonstrations

Representative primitive instantiations

The four demonstrations span transfer, agitation, setup, recovery, embodiment transfer, and cleanup. They are presented as evidence for the action representation rather than benchmarks of a single robot platform.

Single-arm execution

Franka validation of Tooling and Agitating primitives such as pouring, stirring, and shaking.

Franka pouring liquid into a beaker
Single-arm transfer: Pouring
Franka stirring liquid in a beaker
Single-arm agitation: Stirring

Second embodiment

Dobot solution preparation spanning setup, execution, and cleanup.

Dobot inserting a stir bar
Dobot setup: Insertive-P
Dobot stirring solution on hotplate
Dobot execution: Stirring

Bimanual setup

Two Franka arms assemble a separating-funnel apparatus and recover from intermediate misalignment.

Two Franka arms securing a bosshead
Bimanual setup: Rotational-C
Two Franka arms recovering a misaligned iron ring
Recovery by recomposition

Perception-guided cleanup

Franka with a wrist-mounted depth camera detects and removes broken glass fragments from the workspace.

Object detection output for broken glass fragments
Perception-guided detection
Robot removing a broken glass fragment
Cleanup: Transitional-P

Taxonomy

Three dimensions, four categories, eighteen primitives

Laboratory actions in the source corpus are organized by wrench dependence, actuation directness, and motion periodicity. These dimensions produce four high-level categories that decompose into action-level primitives.

Overview diagram showing TARMAC categories and robotic demonstration pipeline
TARMAC organizes observed chemistry laboratory manipulations into Positioning, Coupling, Tooling, and Agitating primitives, then uses that shared vocabulary to support robotic instantiation.
Dimension 1

Wrench dependence

Separates actions governed by force or torque cues from those primarily governed by geometric pose.

Dimension 2

Actuation directness

Distinguishes direct manipulation from actions mediated through tools, containers, or implements.

Dimension 3

Motion periodicity

Distinguishes finite one-off actions from cyclic or sustained actions whose outcomes accumulate over time.

Positioning

Controlled placement and orientation under minor resistive forces.

  • Transitional-P
  • Rotational-P
  • Insertive-P
  • Sliding-P

Coupling

Joining or separating objects through controlled force, torque, or deformation.

  • Transitional-C
  • Rotational-C
  • Elastic-C
  • Penetrative-C

Tooling

Mediated manipulation through tools, implements, containers, or pressure gradients.

  • Scooping
  • Spotting
  • Pouring
  • Squirting

Agitating

Repeated or sustained actions that mix, clean, spread, secure, or mechanically modify material.

  • Shaking
  • Stirring
  • Twisting
  • Wiping
  • Wrapping
  • Grinding

Key results

Specification adequacy, expressive coverage, and executability

The paper evaluates whether the written taxonomy is operational, whether the primitive set covers written chemistry procedures, and whether representative primitives can be instantiated on robotic platforms.

562
Annotated actions Rule-following classification reached 86.7% concordance and macro-F1 0.84 with full workflow context.
98.6%
Cross-corpus coverage 904 of 917 manipulative steps from 23 procedures across four papers mapped to existing TARMAC primitives.
4 x 5
Robotic validation Four configurations and five tasks exercised eight primitives across all four high-level categories.
Cross-corpus coverage matrix showing TARMAC primitive assignments across four chemistry papers
Cross-corpus decomposition shows that different chemistry domains draw from distinct sub-vocabularies while sharing the same primitive alphabet.

Abstract

Overview

Laboratory automation has made well-defined experimental protocols increasingly executable by machines, yet the physical manipulations surrounding those protocols remain difficult to generalize. Setup, transfer, adjustment, assembly, and cleanup operations form a long tail of context-dependent actions that are typically handled manually or implemented as bespoke robotic skills for individual workflows and platforms.

TARMAC is an empirical taxonomy of laboratory actions grounded in the analysis of instructional chemistry practice. Rather than prescribing a control framework, it emerges from a bottom-up decomposition of real laboratory manipulations into physically meaningful primitives organized by wrench dependence, actuation directness, and motion periodicity.

Across the experimental contexts examined, the majority of actions can be expressed as compositions of a finite and reusable set of primitives. This structure provides a basis for organizing, comparing, and reusing manipulation capabilities across experimental workflows.

Dataset examples

Advanced laboratory procedures represented as primitive sequences

The source corpus contains 91 instructional chemistry videos and 562 annotated manipulation segments. The examples below illustrate air-sensitive handling, chromatography, reduced-pressure distillation, and NMR sample preparation.

Schlenk line seal attachment Needle piercing a Schlenk line suba-seal

Schlenk line cannula filtration

Elastic-C, Penetrative-C, Rotational-P, and Transitional-P support inert-atmosphere handling.

Opening a chromatography column tap Pouring eluent into a chromatography column

Column chromatography

Squirting, Scooping, Pouring, Rotational-P, and Coupling primitives cover preparation and elution.

Twisting a condenser to spread grease Connecting vacuum tubing to distillation apparatus

Reduced-pressure distillation

Twisting, Insertive-P, Transitional-C, and Elastic-C describe vacuum-tight apparatus setup.

Scooping solid for NMR preparation Wiping an NMR tube

NMR sample preparation

Scooping, Squirting, Pouring, Coupling, Wiping, and Positioning cover weighing, dissolving, and labeling.

Resources

Paper and data availability

The paper, supplementary information, and lightweight public data artifacts are linked below. The full source-video archive and per-procedure decomposition outputs can be added here when the public dataset package is available.

Paper PDF Supplementary PDF Video annotation CSV

BibTeX

@misc{huang2026tarmac,
  title = {TARMAC: A Taxonomy for Robot Manipulation in Chemistry},
  author = {Huang, Kefeng and Martin, Alice E. and Pipe, Jonathon and Wang, Tianyuan and Franklin, Barnabas A. and Horbaczewskyj, Chris and Tyrrell, Andy M. and Fairlamb, Ian J. S. and Zhu, Jihong},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://tarmac-paper.github.io/}
}