Putting artificial intelligence to work in the lab

An Australian-German collaboration has demonstrated fully-autonomous SPM operation, applying artificial intelligence and deep learning to remove the need for constant human supervision. The new system, dubbed DeepSPM, bridges the gap between nanoscience, automation and artificial intelligence (AI), and firmly establishes the use of machine learning for experimental scientific research. "Optimising SPM data acquisition can be very tedious. This optimization process is usually performed by the human experimentalist, and is rarely reported," says FLEET Chief Investigator Dr. Agustin Schiffrin (Monash University). "Our new AI-driven system can operate and acquire optimal SPM data autonomously, for multiple straight days, and without any human supervision."