I just attended the Air Force Research Laboratories (AFRL) Autonomous Research Systems for Materials Developmen
The purpose of the workshop was to discuss the role of automation and autonomous research in materials development. The experimental space for research development is over whelming and new tools are needed to efficiently use experiments to identify mechanisms or methods to achieve desired material properties. We worked to layout a roadmap towards this end.
One of the keynote speakers Prof. Powell from Princeton discussed a technique called the knowledge gradient. This straightforward statistical tool helps to identify the experiment that would teach us the most information. Although, it sometimes is unintuitive that is the point. Check it out here.
