The current materials research process is slow and expensive; taking decades from invention to commercialization. The Air Force Research Laboratory pioneered ARES™, the first autonomous research system for materials development. A rapidly growing number of researchers are now exploiting advances in artificial intelligence (AI), autonomy & robotics, along with modeling and simulation to create research robots capable of doing iterative experimentation orders of magnitude faster than today. We will discuss concepts and advances in autonomous experimentation in general, and associated hardware, software and autonomous methods.
For Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs), we show progress in autonomous and data science methods to understand and control the fundamental mechanisms that drive CNT synthesis via CVD. We will explore the importance of the oxidizing or reducing nature of the CVD environment on nucleation and growth.
In the future, we expect autonomous research to revolutionize the research process, and propose a “Moore’s Law for the Speed of Research,” where the rate of advancement increases exponentially, and the cost of research drops exponentially. We also consider a renaissance in “Citizen Science” where access to online research robots makes science widely available.
Bio
Dr. Benji Maruyama is a Senior Materials Research Engineer in the Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials & Manufacturing Directorate. He leads research on the synthesis and processing science of carbon nanotubes. Dr. Maruyama created and is developing a new method research: Autonomous Research Systems for Materials Development. He is also the point of contact for carbon materials for the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate. His background and interests include carbon nanomaterials, energy storage, field emission, carbon, polymer and metal matrix composites, imaging of complex 3D microstructures and combinatorial experimentation. He is currently involved in the study of the origins of chiral growth for carbon nanotubes, nanostructured materials for battery electrodes, in-situ experimentation, and catalyst development.