Robots are learning to do jobs traditionally done by humans such as bus drivers, factory assembly lines, butlers, guides, among many others, and now they can also do the work of scientists.
A team of engineers from the University of Liverpool (UK) has developed a scientific robot that can autonomously perform experiments, analyze results and decide what to do next. And it is already making new discoveries.
The robot weighs around 400 kg and measures 1.75 m . Its appearance is very similar to the mechanical arms that we can see in many factory lines but with some modifications to make it more suitable for science, such as carrying specialized tweezers to gently pick up glass vials and buttons.
The robot moves through the laboratory thanks to a LIDAR detection system, very similar to those used in autonomous cars, and is programmed with coordinates for various workstations, where specific tasks are carried out.
But like any scientist, the most impressive thing about this robot is its brain. It has been programmed with an algorithm that allows you to explore some 98 million possible experiments and you must choose which one to do at any time based on the results of previous tests.
The robot can perform each individual step in each of the experiments, including weighing solids, dispensing liquids, turning on lights, running reactions, and measuring hydrogen output. Then determine which experiment to do, based on your own results.
Independently, the robot ran for eight days straight, working for a total of 172 of those 192 hours and only taking a two-and-a-half hour break a day to recharge its battery. He conducted 688 experiments and managed to identify a new photocatalyst that is six times more active than others.
“The biggest challenge was making the system robust,” says Benjamin Burger, first author of the study. “To work autonomously for several days, doing thousands of delicate manipulations, the failure rate for each task must be very low. But once this is done, the robot makes far fewer mistakes than a human operator . “
If you think that the work of scientists could be in jeopardy, it is not. It is more of a tool than a substitute, since human beings will still be needed to decide which experiments to carry out and design the experiments that the robot will later have to run.
Reference: Nature
