Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) will build an “Autonomous Lab” in which AI and robots design and conduct experiments. It will work with global science and technology company Thermo Fisher Scientific to create a next-generation research hub to speed scientific research and new drug development.

KAIST said on Aug. 27 it signed an agreement on Aug. 26 with Thermo Fisher Scientific to build the “SHARE Hub” and for strategic cooperation.

The SHARE Hub is an autonomous laboratory that links human intuition, AI inference, robotic experiment execution and experimental data. When a researcher poses a scientific question, AI designs the experiment and robots carry it out. AI then analyses the results and feeds them into the next experiment.

The two institutions plan to jointly build the SHARE Hub by combining KAIST’ research capabilities in life sciences, chemistry, medical science, AI and robotics with Thermo Fisher Scientific’s advanced research equipment, laboratory automation and system integration technologies.

The SHARE Hub will be built with a modular structure that can connect new AI, robots and experimental equipment as needed. The two institutions will jointly develop core AI, robotics and automation technologies. They will also push a “challenge programme” to apply them to difficult problems in science and new drug development.

They also plan to later broaden participation to companies, universities, research institutes and hospitals in and outside South Korea, expanding the SHARE Hub into an open testbed for jointly developing and validating new research equipment and AI and robot technologies.

KAIST President Chung-sik Bae (배충식) said, “The SHARE Hub is an open innovation platform where scientists, AI researchers, engineers and industry together develop and demonstrate the next-generation autonomous laboratory.” He added, “I hope it grows into a global cooperation model that sets a new standard for future scientific research.”