The Robot Experimentalist

机器人实验师

• 批准号: EP/X032418/1
• 负责人: Ross King
• 金额: $ 112.29万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FX032418%2F1
• 关键词: Robot; Experimentalist

It is often considered that there are two types of scientist: theoretical and experimental. Theoretical scientists invent/discover new theories to explain the natural world. Experimental scientists invent experiments to test these theories. For example, the theoretical physicist Albert Einstein invented the theory of General Relativity, and astronomers tested General Relativity by inventing the idea of observing the position of stars near the Sun during a solar eclipse. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used in scientific research. Almost all of this effort is in the formation of new hypotheses to explain data. This corresponds to what theoretical scientists do. Far less effort has been put into automating what experimental scientists do. This is what the proposed research focus on.We propose to develop a 'Robot Experimentalist'. This will be an AI system that when given a hypothesis to be tested, and a description of a set of laboratory equipment, will be able to plan an experiment to test the hypothesis.To make the problem tractable we will focus on experiments using the yeast S. cerevisiae. This is the organism used to make bread, beer, and wine; but its main role in biology is as a model for human cells. Surprisingly, most of what is true for S. cerevisiae is also true for H. sapiens. We will test the Robot Experimentalist using laboratory robots in the UK and Japan.

人们通常认为有两种类型的科学家：理论科学家和实验科学家。理论科学家发明/发现新的理论来解释自然世界。实验科学家发明实验来检验这些理论。例如，理论物理学家阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦发明了广义相对论，天文学家通过发明在日食期间观察太阳附近恒星位置的想法来测试广义相对论。人工智能（AI）越来越多地用于科学研究。几乎所有这些努力都是为了形成新的假设来解释数据。这与理论科学家所做的事情相一致。在将实验科学家的工作自动化方面，投入的精力要少得多。这就是我们所提出的研究重点。我们建议开发一个“机器人实验员”。这将是一个人工智能系统，当给定一个假设要测试，和一套实验室设备的描述，将能够计划一个实验来测试假设。为了使问题易于处理，我们将专注于使用酵母S的实验。啤酒。这是一种用来制作面包、啤酒和葡萄酒的有机体;但它在生物学中的主要作用是作为人类细胞的模型。令人惊讶的是，S. cerevisiae对H.智人我们将在英国和日本使用实验室机器人测试机器人实验家。