A team of scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) has developed a robotic chemist dubbed Luke, which can perform autonomous experiments in the lab.

According to its developers, Luke features two robotic arms and is outfitted with a visual system, an artificial intelligence (AI) computing platform and human-machine interaction software, making it possible for the robotic chemist to handle delicate tasks like pouring liquids and grinding solids, while also designing experiments and testing hypotheses.

Source: University of Science and Technology of China

"What's most remarkable is Luke's capacity for learning and analysis. It can learn from 50,000 academic papers in two weeks and verify over 3.76 million experimental formulations in six weeks," the researchers explained.

Robots are proving to be powerful tools for scientists, capable of tackling scientific problems by designing and executing experiments with high efficiency and precision and delivering optimized solutions, the team added.