Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Sci Robot. 2024 Oct 23;9(95):eadm6991. doi: 10.1126/scirobotics.adm6991.
Laboratories in chemistry, biochemistry, and materials science are at the leading edge of technology, discovering molecules and materials to unlock capabilities in energy, catalysis, biotechnology, sustainability, electronics, and more. Yet, most modern laboratories resemble factories from generations past, with a large reliance on humans manually performing synthesis and characterization tasks. Robotics and automation can enable scientific experiments to be conducted faster, more safely, more accurately, and with greater reproducibility, allowing scientists to tackle large societal problems in domains such as health and energy on a shorter timescale. We define five levels of laboratory automation, from laboratory assistance to full automation. We also introduce robotics research challenges that arise when increasing levels of automation and when increasing the generality of tasks within the laboratory. Robots are poised to transform science labs into automated factories of discovery that accelerate scientific progress.
化学、生物化学和材料科学领域的实验室处于技术的前沿，正在发现分子和材料，以释放能源、催化、生物技术、可持续性、电子等领域的潜力。然而，大多数现代实验室仍然类似于过去几代的工厂，高度依赖人工进行合成和特性分析任务。机器人技术和自动化可以使科学实验更快、更安全、更准确、更具可重复性地进行，使科学家能够在更短的时间内解决健康和能源等领域的重大社会问题。我们定义了实验室自动化的五个级别，从实验室辅助到完全自动化。我们还介绍了在提高自动化水平和增加实验室任务通用性时出现的机器人研究挑战。机器人有望将科学实验室转变为发现的自动化工厂，从而加速科学进步。
