Large-scale, high-throughput experiments and big data are becoming fundamental for scientific discoveries. New discoveries are time-consuming and costly; hence, laboratory automation based on robotics and AI aim to shorten and reduce these factors. Most scientists (Nature 533, 452–454) believe that the lack of reproducibility and scalability of experiments is the main reason for this situation, especially in the fields of life sciences, material and drug discovery. For years, automating scientific experiments has been considered the holy grail for addressing this fundamental reproducibility problem. Most of the existing solutions are limited to rigid and complex devices that can only solve specific experimental tasks that are barely adjustable to experiment protocol changes. With further developments in robotics and intelligent software, new opportunities are opening up to address this in a more task-flexible but human-centric way. However, it is not yet clear how these developments can be applied to accelerate laboratory processes. Specific challenges e.g. manipulation and perception of transparent glassware, system integration with non-digital devices, challenges with deploying mobile manipulators safely in human labs, as well as standardization have not yet been fully overcome. This workshop will provide an opportunity to create new synergies towards addressing these challenges.

Submission Guidelines

We encourage researchers to submit short papers (4-6 pages + citations) in PDF, using the IEEE conference template.  Accepted papers will be posted on the workshop website and will not appear in the official IEEE proceedings.

A number of submissions will be selected for poster presentations according to the pertinence of the workshop and the quality of the research.  All selected posters will be presented in both the spotlight and the interactive poster sessions. At the end of the workshop, our jury will award outstanding paper awards among the presented posters endowed with prize money funded by the Leverhulme Research Centre for Functional Materials Design and the Acceleration consortium.

Four submissions will be selected for Pioneers of Natural Sciences Laboratory Robotics Talks where four stellar senior doctoral students and early career researchers* will present their bodies of work. The four submissions will be split equally between candidates with a natural sciences background who have used robotics, automation, and AI in their research and candidates with a robotics/computer science/engineering background who have applied robotics, automation, and AI to laboratories. Financial support will be provided for the pioneers, fully funded by the Leverhulme Research Centre for Functional Materials Design and the Acceleration consortium. To be eligible for this, please submit additionally to the paper a one-page cover letter describing the applicant’s motivation for applying and outlining relevant research work and an academic CV.

All selected contributions will be published on the workshop website prior to the workshop.

List of Topics

This workshop covers, but is not limited to, the following topics of interest:

• Application of Robotics, AI, and Automation to Life Sciences, Materials Research, Clinical Laboratories, and Pharmaceutical Development

• Case Studies in Implementing Laboratory Automation

• Cognitive Robotics and Artificial Intelligence for Laboratory Environments

• Generic Robotic Skill Development of Laboratory Tasks

• Human-Robot Collaboration/Interaction in Laboratories

• Integration of Robotic Systems and Laboratory Instruments

• Knowledge Discovery and Transfer of Experimental Results: From Hypothesis to Fundamental Understanding

• Machine Vision Methods for Laboratory Robotics

• Mobile Manipulation for Laboratory Automation

• Multimodal Sensing and Perception for Robots in Labs

• Robotics, AI and Automation in Laboratories: Past, Present and Future

• Self Driving Labs

• Standardization in Laboratory Automation

• System Architectures for Laboratory Automation

Committees

• Please check relevant information on our website

Invited Speakers

• Please check relevant information on our website

Publication

Accepted papers will be posted on the workshop website and will not appear in the official IEEE proceedings.

Venue

The conference will be held on May 17th in Yokohama, Japan.

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to Kourosh Darvish, Moritz Eckhoff, Hatem Fakhruldeen, Andrea Gabrielli, Dennis Knobbe, Gabriella Pizzuto, Florian Shkurti, Naruki Yoshikawa, Zhengxue Zhou, Henning Zwirnmann

Sponsors

Acceleration Consortium, Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence, Leverhulme Research Centre for Functional Materials Design