{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,7]],"date-time":"2026-04-07T17:27:02Z","timestamp":1775582822183,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)","issue":"106","content-domain":{"domain":["www.science.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Sci. Robot."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,24]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Science laboratory automation enables accelerated discovery in life sciences and materials. However, it requires interdisciplinary collaboration to address challenges such as robust and flexible autonomy, reproducibility, throughput, standardization, the role of human scientists, and ethics. This article highlights these issues, reflecting perspectives from leading experts in laboratory automation across different disciplines of the natural sciences.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1126\/scirobotics.adv7932","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,24]],"date-time":"2025-09-24T17:58:20Z","timestamp":1758736700000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.34133\/aaas_crossmark","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Accelerating discovery in natural science laboratories with AI and robotics: Perspectives and challenges"],"prefix":"10.1126","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0201-1021","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Andrew I.","family":"Cooper","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3846-8541","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Patrick","family":"Courtney","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"SiLA Consortium, Bubikon, Switzerland."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4984-432X","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Kourosh","family":"Darvish","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Acceleration Consortium, Toronto, Canada."},{"name":"University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0757-9193","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Moritz","family":"Eckhoff","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Technical University of Munich (TUM) School of Computation, Information, and Technology, Department of Computer Engineering, Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI), Munich, Germany."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-5043-2159","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Hatem","family":"Fakhruldeen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-6451-9058","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Andrea","family":"Gabrielli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Technical University of Munich (TUM) School of Computation, Information, and Technology, Department of Computer Engineering, Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI), Munich, Germany."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0482-4296","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Animesh","family":"Garg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7696-4955","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Sami","family":"Haddadin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Technical University of Munich (TUM) School of Computation, Information, and Technology, Department of Computer Engineering, Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI), Munich, Germany."},{"name":"Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0221-7890","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Kanako","family":"Harada","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4345-3005","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Jason","family":"Hein","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada."}]},{"given":"Maria","family":"H\u00fcbner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4891-9783","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Dennis","family":"Knobbe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Technical University of Munich (TUM) School of Computation, Information, and Technology, Department of Computer Engineering, Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI), Munich, Germany."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8541-0759","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Gabriella","family":"Pizzuto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK."}]},{"given":"Florian","family":"Shkurti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada."}]},{"given":"Ruja","family":"Shrestha","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unchained Labs, Pleasanton, CA, USA."}]},{"given":"Kerstin","family":"Thurow","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Life Science Automation, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany."}]},{"given":"Rafael","family":"Vescovi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2785-8819","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Birgit","family":"Vogel-Heuser","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"TUM School of Engineering and Design, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Automation and Information Systems, MIRMI, Munich, Germany."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7094-4267","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"\u00c1d\u00e1m","family":"Wolf","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"SiLA Consortium, Bubikon, Switzerland."},{"name":"Takeda, Zurich, Switzerland."},{"name":"\u00d3buda University, Budapest, Hungary."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1546-8709","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Naruki","family":"Yoshikawa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Science Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5831-1210","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Yan","family":"Zeng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9478-9361","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Zhengxue","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK."}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6097-8858","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Henning","family":"Zwirnmann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Technical University of Munich (TUM) School of Computation, Information, and Technology, Department of Computer Engineering, Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI), Munich, Germany."}]}],"member":"221","reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_1_2_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41586-022-05543-x"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_3_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/533452a"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_4_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2401238121"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_5_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41586-020-2442-2"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_6_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1039\/D3SC06206F"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_7_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1039\/D3DD00142C"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_8_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1039\/D4DD00313F"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_9_2","unstructured":"K. Darvish M. Eckhoff H. Fakhruldeen A. Gabrielli D. Knobbe G. Pizzuto F. Shkurti N. Yoshikawa Z. Zhou H. Zwirnmann \u201cWorkshop on accelerating discovery in natural science laboratories with AI and robotics \u201d in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (IEEE 2024) ."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_10_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s44160-022-00231-0"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_11_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1021\/acs.chemrev.4c00055"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_12_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/scirobotics.adm6991"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_13_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1039\/D4DD00059E"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_14_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.matt.2024.01.005"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_15_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"B. Pelkie S. Baird E. Aissi K. Aspuru-Takata Y. Cao J. H. Chang K. Gambhir W. S. Hale L. Hao C. Hattrick J. Hein D. Luo O. Melville M. Ngan L. L. B. Nyeland N. Peek M. Politi E. E. Rajkumar A. Siemenn B. Subbaraman S. Vasquez J. Watchorn W. Zhang R. Ziskason L. Pozzo T. Buonassisi T. Vegge Democratizing self-driving labs through user-developed automation infrastructure. ChemRxiv [Preprint] (2025). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.26434\/chemrxiv-2025-zhkrf.","DOI":"10.26434\/chemrxiv-2025-zhkrf"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_16_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"C. Arnold Can robotic lab assistants speed up your work? (2024); https:\/\/nature.com\/articles\/d41586-024-03714-6.","DOI":"10.1038\/d41586-024-03714-6"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_17_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1142\/S0217595924400153"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_18_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"J. Wang J. Huang R. Cheng \u201cAutomatic reading system for analog instruments based on computer vision and inspection robot for power plant \u201d in Proceedings of the 2018 10th International Conference on Modelling Identification and Control (ICMIC) (IEEE 2018) pp. 1\u20136.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICMIC.2018.8529848"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_19_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"J. Hilario C. Penaloza D. Hernandez-Carmona J. Balbuena D. Quiroz J. Ramirez F. Cuellar \u201cDevelopment of a mobile robot for inspection of analog gauges in industrial plants using computer vision \u201d in Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems (CIS) and IEEE Conference on Robotics Automation and Mechatronics (RAM) (IEEE 2019) pp. 209\u2013214.","DOI":"10.1109\/CIS-RAM47153.2019.9095800"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_20_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TIM.2020.2967956"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_21_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.matt.2024.10.015"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_22_2","article-title":"CRISPR-GPT for agentic automation of gene-editing experiments","volume":"2025","author":"Qu Y.","year":"2025","unstructured":"Y. Qu, K. Huang, M. Yin, K. Zhan, D. Liu, D. Yin, H. C. Cousins, W. A. Johnson, X. Wang, M. Shah, R. B. Altman, D. Zhou, M. Wang, L. Cong, CRISPR-GPT for agentic automation of gene-editing experiments. Nat. Biomed. Eng. 2025, 10.1038\/s41551-025-01463-z (2025).","journal-title":"Nat. Biomed. Eng."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_23_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/sdata.2016.18"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_24_2","unstructured":"G. P. Swann The Economics of Standardization: Final Report for Standards and Technical Regulations Directorate Department of Trade and Industry (Manchester Business School 2000)."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_25_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"K. Blind The Economics of Standards (Edward Elgar Publishing 2004).","DOI":"10.4337\/9781035305155"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_26_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/2211068211424550"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_27_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.slast.2023.07.001"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_28_2","first-page":"1","article-title":"OPC UA\u2014Service-oriented architecture for industrial applications","volume":"26","author":"Leitner S.-H.","year":"2006","unstructured":"S.-H. Leitner, W. Mahnke, OPC UA\u2014Service-oriented architecture for industrial applications. Softwaretechnik-Trends 26, 1\u20136 (2006).","journal-title":"Softwaretechnik-Trends"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_29_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"J. Leeming Webcast: How to green your lab (2021); https:\/\/nature.com\/articles\/d41586-021-02352-6.","DOI":"10.1038\/d41586-021-02352-6"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_30_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"B. Parkinson \u00c1. Wolf P. Galambos K. Sz\u00e9ll \u201cAssessment of the utilization of quadruped robots in pharmaceutical research and development laboratories \u201d in Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE 27th International Conference on Intelligent Engineering Systems (INES) (IEEE 2023) pp. 221\u2013228.","DOI":"10.1109\/INES59282.2023.10297818"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_31_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"D. Knobbe H. Zwirnmann M. Eckhoff S. Haddadin \u201cCore processes in intelligent robotic lab assistants: Flexible liquid handling \u201d in Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (IEEE 2022) pp. 2335\u20132342.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS47612.2022.9981636"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_32_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.xcrp.2023.101411"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_33_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/MRA.2023.3336472"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_34_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/2211068216637352"}],"container-title":["Science Robotics"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1126\/scirobotics.adv7932","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,24]],"date-time":"2025-09-24T17:58:28Z","timestamp":1758736708000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/scirobotics.adv7932"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,24]]},"references-count":33,"journal-issue":{"issue":"106","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,24]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1126\/scirobotics.adv7932"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/scirobotics.adv7932","relation":{},"ISSN":["2470-9476"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2470-9476","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,24]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2025-01-07","order":0,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2025-08-27","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2025-09-24","order":3,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}],"article-number":"eadv7932"}}