Imagine walking into a lab where robots are conducting careful experiments. They are assisting researchers in the discovery of metal alloys that can snap back into shape after crumbling, or that can snake through easily into human blood vessels.

​This is not a scene from a Steven Spielberg movie or a chapter from an Isaac Asimov novel.

​It is indeed going to be a reality at the US’s Texas A&M University. The Department of Materials Science and Engineering of the university has received a $2 million grant to build a first-of-its-kind self-driven research lab, named the Aggie AI Foundry.

The facility will be fully automated, equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) brainpower and robotic workers. The computer-controlled arms of the robots are expected to test novel metal alloys by mixing, melting, and testing materials based on directions from an AI brain.

​These are expected to take these laborious tasks away from humans, which still take a toll on them, and speed up the discovery and development of new metal alloys beyond current capabilities.

​”Dr. Karaman and I, along with our collaborators and students, know what it takes to design materials faster. And we have shown it,” said Raymundo Arróyave, a professor in the department. “But the process can still take a toll on humans.”

​The Foundry is a brainchild of Arróyave and Ibrahim Karaman, another materials scientist in the department. By building this lab, they hope to free the students for more creative work.

​”You want students to be creative, but imagine they are like line cooks in a big, fancy restaurant.

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