What is a self-driving lab?

[sgbaird]

There's some ambiguity to the definition of a self-driving laboratory (SDL). There's also a history (and sometimes conflation) with the term Materials Acceleration Platform (MAP).

High-level considerations

• What are the minimum criteria that must be met for a system to qualify as a self-driving laboratory?

[sgbaird]

Relevant snippets

Self-driving laboratories combine artificial intelligence with automated robotic platforms for the autonomous discovery of new materials. (https://www.matter.toronto.edu/basic-content-page/ai-for-discovery-and-self-driving-labs)

Self-driving laboratories unify artificial intelligence (AI) with automated robotic platforms to realize autonomous experimentation⁵⁻⁹. The closed-loop workflow is generally subdivided into four steps: design, make, test, and analyze (DMTA; Figure 1). Autonomous experimentation is involved in both the make and test steps, but the interface to the design and analyze steps is also essential for autonomous experimentation. (https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2022.05.035)

Self-driving laboratories have the potential to provide the means to revolutionize experimentation by empowering automation with artificial intelligence to enable autonomous discovery. (https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229862)

The recent growth of data science and automated experimentation techniques has resulted in the advent of self-driving labs (SDLs) via the integration of machine learning, lab automation and robotics. An SDL is a machine learning-assisted modular experimental platform that iteratively operates a series of experiments selected by the machine learning algorithm to achieve a user-defined objective. (https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s44160-022-00231-0)

Self-driving laboratories that iteratively design, execute, and learn from materials science experiments
in a fully autonomous loop present an opportunity to accelerate this research process. (https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz8867)

[sgbaird]

Commentary from community

Jae Hattrick-Simpers: Is there an AI brain dictating to an automated tool (synthesis, characterization, or both) what experiments to run. Better that it be adaptive so that individual experiments aren't static in nature.