A new researcher from a chemistry lab in China is already conducting cutting-edge research at an astonishing speed, and "he" never rests. Xiao Lai is the world's first data-driven all-round artificial intelligence chemist robot. The inventors say it can basically do anything that

A new researcher from a chemistry lab in China is already conducting cutting-edge research at an astonishing speed, and "he" never rests.

Xiaolai is the world's first data-driven all-round artificial intelligence chemist robot. The inventors say it can basically do anything that needs to be done in a laboratory: from testing synthesis to the identification and separation of chemicals or materials, which is called characterization.

But Xiaolai doesn't just accept commands. The researchers said the robot was also able to conduct its own experiments and invent materials.

The robot was developed by researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China - Professor Luo Yi and Jiang Jun from the School of Chemistry and Materials Sciences, and Professor Shang Weiwei from the School of Information Science and Technology.

The robot is designed to move freely in the laboratory, with its arms holding a test tube or handling instruments on various types of workstations. Researchers said "Xiaolai" can read scientific papers, design new experiments, observe microscopes, and even analyze results to create useful new chemicals.

But what excites researchers even more is that Xiaolai may be able to contribute to the research on high entropy materials, a crucial area in the energy industry.

Scientists have recently focused on finding catalyst for this material, which can improve the stability of hydrogen batteries, as well as other applications. According to the research team's website, "Xiaolai" is being used to find the best formula for such catalysts, thereby improving the efficiency of electrochemical energy storage.

According to Professor Shang, the modular design makes the robot very versatile and can add more experimental workstations or computing institutions according to needs.

The paper states: "Xiaolai" actually consists of two mobile robots and 15 workstations. With a service platform and an independent computing brain, it is equivalent to a group of well-organized human chemists. "

The robot's artificial intelligence consists of three modules: a machine reading module that can automatically read a large number of literature, a mobile robot module that performs various chemical experiments, and a computing brain module that generates the prediction model based on theoretical calculations. The demonstration video of one of the research teams shows the complexity that robots must face when making catalysts for high-entropy materials.

First, Xiaolai browsed the There are existing related literature, including 16,000 papers. Five metals are then used to form the catalyst. In this case, manganese, copper, cobalt, nickel and zinc were selected as candidate elements from 118,000 possible element combinations. After selecting the components, the next task is to determine the proportion of each element. To achieve this, the small one was first calculated in molecular dynamics to obtain all possible configurations. Then, the small one evaluated the theoretical catalytic performance of each configuration. After listing all possible simulations, it synthesizes, characterizes and qualifies each configuration. lab tests. After 207 trials, the data was uploaded to an cloud server , where the robot's computing brain summarized and analyzed the results.

Researchers said that if traditional research methods were used, the study would take hundreds of years to determine the best catalyst formula, but it took a little time to complete it in five weeks.

Machine learning concept rendering html In addition to developing high-entropy catalysts, l2

can also solve other problems and accurately produce useful chemicals. For example, changing the hydrogen doping concentration of the material to improve photocatalytic performance, optimizing luminescent materials, and finding optical film material.

A researcher from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences said: "Artificial intelligence chemists have advantages in developing the synthetic paths of natural products, because in this case, the reaction path is always long and complex, and computers perform better than the human brain in such complex calculations."

researchers also developed the corresponding virtual service platform for Xiaolai. Computer programs can communicate with robots or customize experimental protocols. The results can be visualized on the platform.

However, a researcher at the University of Science and Technology of China pointed out the limitations of robots. "Artificial intelligence chemists can only obtain information from existing knowledge and conduct experiments in known technologies. Future discoveries will largely depend on human scientists to develop new theories and invent new technologies. ”