The Lab of the Future Runs Itself

Artificial intelligence and robotics have turned research into an around-the-clock engine. Whether the science is reliable is another question

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Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's A-Lab pairs robots and AI to run experiments at all hours, no humans required.

PAST MIDNIGHT IN THE HEARST MEMORIAL MINING BUILDING on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, beyond a vaulted entrance and down a marble staircase, the experiments in the A-Lab are running without people. Powdered precursors and oxides twirl through the laboratory in crucibles shaped like sake cups, then are slurried and spun in centrifuges with zirconium beads, baked in industrial ovens, scanned using x-ray diffraction and, in battery tests, measured for ionic conductivity. Each result feeds the next experiment.

When something goes wrong-a jammed rack, a spilled sample, a precursor running out-the choreography halts. Minerva, Alfred, Prometheus, Jeeves, and a handful of other artificial intelligence-enabled robots that run the lab overnight can't always reset it themselves. A sleeping graduate student gets an e-mail and a Slack alert, then can log in from bed, check the lab's cameras and try to fix the problem.

A robotic gripper moves cup-shaped containers among trays of prepared samples.