Accelerating Discovery in Natural Science Laboratories with AI and Robotics

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High-throughput experimentation, AI, and big data are transforming scientific discovery, yet reproducibility and scalability remain pressing challenges, especially in life sciences, materials, and drug development. Laboratory automation has long been viewed as a solution, but current systems are typically rigid and task-specific. Emerging advances in robotics and AI offer the potential for more flexible, human-centered approaches. However, significant hurdles persist, including reliable perception of glassware, integration with non-digital devices, safe deployment of mobile manipulators, and the lack of standardization. Now in its third edition, this workshop aims to build new synergies by addressing these challenges through real-world use cases from the natural sciences, engaging robotics experts to define effective solutions, and exploring the deployment, development, and benchmarking of robotics and AI methods that can accelerate scientific discovery.