Robot Lab Conducts Optics Experiments On Demand

Every new generation of phone display, television screen, and solar panel is a result of precision optics experiments, which use lasers and other light sources to measure the optical properties of candidate materials. These experiments can take months to run, requiring scientists to meticulously angle and adjust delicate light sources, mirrors, cameras, and other components, in a careful and constant tuning that can be physically tedious and time-consuming.

But MIT scientists say the whole process of building and running an optics experiment could one day be fully automated. Taking a step toward such a future, they have developed a reconfigurable, robotic optics laboratory.