Adaptive optimal operation of a parallel robotic liquid handling station ⁎ ⁎T.B. and A.S. acknowledge partial funding of this project by the Austrian Research Funding Association (FFG) within the programme Bridge in the project modELTES (project No. 851262). M.N.C.B. acknowledge financial support by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the Framework Concept ‘Research for Tomorrow’s Production’ (AUTOBIO).