​​A team of scientists at BAM explores how so-called self-driving labs can be used to synthesize, characterize and optimize nano and advanced materials. Those labs combine the use of machine learning, lab automation, and robotics. A self-driving lab built for speeding up materials discovery is also known as a ”material acceleration platform” (MAP).

​Acceleration is the name of the game: In MAPs, robots can repeat processes and experiments faster than humans can, with high precision. Thus, tests become fully reproducible. Results are automatically examined, evaluated and fed into the next round of trials.

​This is particularly helpful for the development of nano and advanced materials, since they have special requirements regarding the modular hardware building blocks required for their syntheses, purification, and characterization. BAM’s scientists also work on software and hardware tools that help to integrate and control components necessary for producing and characterizing those materials. 

Find out more here and here.

The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), and Humboldt University of Berlin (HU) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish the Berlin Battery Lab.

The laboratory will pool the expertise of the three institutions to advance the development of sustainable battery technologies:

• BAM has internationally recognized expertise in battery safety and electrochemical energy materials
• HU Berlin is a leader in Germany in academic research on sodium-ion batteries
• HZB is particularly active in research on lithium-sulfur batteries

The Berlin Battery Lab is open to industry partners from all over Germany and Europe and serves to promote the development and production of locally manufactured sustainable batteries. The collaboration between basic research, applied research, and certification enables a faster transition from research to industrial application.

Learn more here.