ORNL highlights Facilities & Operations enabling AI-driven self-driving labs

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) highlights its Facilities & Operations (F&O) workforce as the team building and maintaining infrastructure that enables more than a dozen AI-driven autonomous (self-driving) laboratories.

• Main announcement: ORNL describes F&O’s role in delivering infrastructure for more than a dozen self-driving labs, managed by nearly 1,300 F&O staff, and advancing the INTERSECT (Interconnected Science Ecosystem) vision; upgrades include a system to connect multiple laboratories into a single control network to support continuous, 24/7 autonomous operations (upgrades are described as being in various stages of completion).
• Background and concrete details: F&O responsibilities include electrical distribution, utilities, high-capacity networking and control systems; specific work cited includes hoisting/rigging heavy robotic equipment, connecting up to eight flowing gas streams, installing wiring and physical networking lines for over 10 pieces of equipment, adapting a fume hood for automated workflows, and constructing custom fixtures and charging stations for mobile robots.