A workshop led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory sketched a road map toward a longtime goal: development of autonomous, or self-driving, next-generation research laboratories.

Download the report of the “Shaping the Future of Self-Driving Autonomous Laboratories” workshop.

Scientists have dreamed for generations of high-tech laboratories operated via robotics at the push of a button. Recent advancements in artificial intelligence bring those dreams closer to reality than ever before, said Rafael Ferreira da Silva, an ORNL senior research scientist and lead author of the workshop’s report.