In-gel enzymatic protein hydrolysis is the most crucial, and also the most labour intensive sample processing step for gel-based mass spectrometric protein identification. The liquid handling robotic workstation for protein digestion represents an efficient automation and standardisation of sample processing between gel electrophoretic protein separation and mass spectrometric protein identification. The automated protein digestion (i) allows a high sample throughput for large scale gel-based proteomics experiments, (ii) minimise hands-on work which avoids sample contamination that affects downstream mass spectrometry-based protein identification and (iii) standardise sample processing which gives more confidence for less experienced users.