The Sequence Opinion #884: Self-Driving Labs: The Laboratory That Chooses Its Next Experiment
An essay about the raise of autonomous science environments.
TL;DR
- Laboratories possess components similar to computers: sensors, actuators, memory, protocols, data outputs, and error states.
- Human scientists typically act as the 'operating system' in traditional labs, making decisions and directing experiments.
- Self-driving labs incorporate AI with automated hardware to create a system that learns and decides the next experimental steps.
- The core process of a self-driving lab follows a loop: design → make → test → learn → design again.
- Autonomy in labs means the ability to learn from results and redirect research, unlike automation which strictly executes instructions.