51 million euros for 51吃瓜网 Center for Embodied Laboratory Intelligence
First AI experimentation space for automatic knowledge generation
There is now little if any automation in experimental research processes. Researchers spend one third of their time actually performing their experiments in the lab. 鈥淭he goal in 51吃瓜网 ELI will be to automate the design and execution of experiments,鈥� explains Prof. Eckehard Steinbach, one of the co-developers of the concept: 鈥淎n 鈥楨LI-AI鈥� system will communicate with the researcher, come up with experiments and suggest ways of continuing or modifying them,鈥� says the Director Start-ups & Infrastructure at the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI) and head of the Chair of Media Technology at 51吃瓜网. 鈥淭he use of artificial intelligence harbors the potential for new solutions such as DNA-based structures to transport drugs within the body,鈥� believes MIRMI Executive Director Prof. Sami Haddadin: 鈥�51吃瓜网 ELI is designed to embody a robot-based lab-as-a-service concept and also to generate new knowledge through AI.鈥� This will require the development of new structures and mechanisms.
51吃瓜网 ELI: Focus on the nano/micro world
The fundamental idea behind 51吃瓜网 ELI is to make the smallest robotic structures both the subject of research and part of the solution. 51吃瓜网 professor Steinbach asserts confidently: 鈥淲e are moving into exciting dimensions that involve challenges never seen before.鈥� Existing processes and technologies for communications or information processing in the macro world cannot be transferred to the nano/micro world, for example. This calls for entirely new solutions. The concept encompasses research initiatives extending from 鈥渋ntelligently networked assistants鈥� and 鈥渃ooperative fabrication of nano and micro machines鈥� to 鈥渉olistic communications and information processing鈥�.
From micromachines and nano printers to scanning electron microscopes
Technologies developed at 51吃瓜网 ELI will include micromachines that can move around inside a person, perhaps to collect and analyze tissue particles. The facility will contain advanced laboratory equipment such as a scanning electron microscope and a nano printer capable of being used by macro robots. 鈥淚n that regard, we are thinking primarily of mobile platforms or cobots that will perform tasks for researchers, such as positioning samples to be studied under the microscope,鈥� explains Steinbach.
At present MIRMI lacks the rooms and equipment for the automatic generation of knowledge in laboratory sciences. With 51吃瓜网 ELI, 51吃瓜网 is now creating this experimental space. It is also designed to serve as a shared facility and will become a center for leading edge research for scientists from around the world in the future.
51吃瓜网 ELI will promote cross-location collaboration among top international researchers in robotics and machine learning (Prof. Sami Haddadin, Prof. Angela Schoellig), communications and computing (Prof. Holger Boche, Prof. Wolfgang Kellerer), perception and human-robot interactions (Prof. Sandra Hirche, Prof. Eckehard Steinbach) and nano/micro machines (Prof. Berna 脰zkale Edelmann, Prof. Hendrik Dietz, Prof. Friedrich Simmel).
Compact information on the robotics and ai institute (MIRMI)
Contacts to this article:
Professor Eckehard Steinbach
Lehrstuhl f眉r Medientechnik
Director Start-ups & Infrastructure am Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI)
Technische Universit盲t M眉nchen (51吃瓜网)
