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Material Innovation Realized with Robotic Arms and AI, Without Human Researchers <(From Left) M.S candidate Dongwoo Kim from KAIST, Ph.D candidate Hyun-Gi Lee from KAIST, Intern Yeham Kang from KAIST, M.S candidate Seongjae Bae from KAIST, Professor Dong-Hwa Seo from KAIST, (From top right, from left) Senior Researcher Inchul Park from POSCO Holdings, Senior Researcher Jung Woo Park, senior researcher from POSCO Holdings> A joint research team from industry and academia in Korea has successfully developed an autonomous lab that uses AI and automation to create new cathode materials for secondary batteries. This system operates without human intervention, drastically reducing researcher labor and cutting the material discovery period by 93%. * Autonomous Lab: A platform that autonomously designs, conducts, and analyzes experiments to find the optimal material. KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced on the 3rd of August that the research team led by Professor Dong-Hwa Seo of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, in collaboration with the team of LIB Materials Research Center in Energy Materials R&D Laboratories at POSCO Holdings' POSCO N.EX.T Hub (Director Ki Soo Kim), built the lab to explore cathode materials using AI and automation technology. Developing secondary battery cathode materials is a labor-intensive and time-consuming process for skilled researchers. It involves extensive exploration of various compositions and experimental variables through weighing, transporting, mixing, sintering*, and analyzing samples. * Sintering: A process in which powder particles are heated to form a single solid mass through thermal activation. The research team's autonomous lab combines an automated system with an AI model. The system handles all experimental steps—weighing, mixing, pelletizing, sintering, and analysis—without human interference. The AI model then interprets the data, learns from it, and selects the best candidates for the next experiment. <Figure 1. Outline of the Anode Material Autonomous Exploration Laboratory> To increase efficiency, the team designed the automation system with separate modules for each process, which are managed by a central robotic arm. This modular approach reduces the system's reliance on the robotic arm. The team also significantly improved the synthesis speed by using a new high-speed sintering method, which is 50 times faster than the conventional low-speed method. This allows the autonomous lab to acquire 12 times more material data compared to traditional, researcher-led experiments. <Figure 2. Synthesis of Cathode Material Using a High-Speed Sintering Device> The vast amount of data collected is automatically interpreted by the AI model to extract information such as synthesized phases and impurity ratios. This data is systematically stored to create a high-quality database, which then serves as training data for an optimization AI model. This creates a closed-loop experimental system that recommends the next cathode composition and synthesis conditions for the automated system. * Closed-loop experimental system: A system that independently performs all experimental processes without researcher intervention. Operating this intelligent automation system 24 hours a day can secure more than 12 times the experimental data and shorten material discovery time by 93%. For a project requiring 500 experiments, the system can complete the work in about 6 days, whereas a traditional researcher-led approach would take 84 days. During development, POSCO Holdings team managed the overall project planning, reviewed the platform design, and co-developed the partial module design and AI-based experimental model. The KAIST team, led by Professor Dong-hwa Seo, was responsible for the actual system implementation and operation, including platform design, module fabrication, algorithm creation, and system verification and improvement. Professor Dong-Hwa Seo of KAIST stated that this system is a solution to the decrease in research personnel due to the low birth rate in Korea. He expects it will enhance global competitiveness by accelerating secondary battery material development through the acquisition of high-quality data. <Figure 3. Exterior View (Side) of the Cathode Material Autonomous Exploration Laboratory> POSCO N.EX.T Hub plans to apply an upgraded version of this autonomous lab to its own research facilities after 2026 to dramatically speed up next-generation secondary battery material development. They are planning further developments to enhance the system's stability and scalability, and hope this industry-academia collaboration will serve as a model for using innovative technology in real-world R&D. <Figure 4. Exterior View (Front) of the Cathode Material Autonomous Exploration Laboratory> The research was spearheaded by Ph.D. student Hyun-Gi Lee, along with master's students Seongjae Bae and Dongwoo Kim from Professor Dong-Hwa Seo’s lab at KAIST. Senior researchers Jung Woo Park and Inchul Park from LIB Materials Research Center of POSCO N.EX.T Hub's Energy Materials R&D Laboratories (Director Jeongjin Hong) also participated.
2025.08.06 View 4994