SPACE — Scientists in China have created a chemist robot supported by artificial intelligence (AI). The robot is tasked with extracting oxygen from Martian water without human supervision.
Synthesizing useful resources from local materials on Mars will be crucial for human survival on the Red Planet in the future. “Extracting oxygen from materials, in a process called the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), is critical,” the researchers said in a paper describing the new AI chemist. The paper was published in the journal Nature on November 13, 2023.
To achieve this goal, the team of scientists built a mobile robot that automated the entire process of extracting oxygen from five samples of Martian and Martian-like meteorites. They also tested the system in a simulated Martian surface environment.
Most importantly, the AI searches for the perfect formula to produce oxygen in any sample from nearly 4 million possible combinations. If it were done by humans, the work could take more than 2,000 years.
Also Read: Today’s History: NASA’s Curiosity Robot Launched to Mars to Search for Life
“Our study provides a demonstration that advanced AI chemists could, without human intervention, synthesize OER catalysts on Mars from local ore (sources),” the researchers wrote in the study.
The first step in extracting oxygen involves sending meteor samples to the facility for analysis in a fully automated laboratory. After that, the robot pre-processes the ore, removing impurities and unwanted materials.
It then uses the materials inside the meteor to make a catalyst, a process called catalytic synthesis. This is for testing the robot’s electrochemical performance.
The types of catalysts that can be produced with available resources, and work most efficiently to extract oxygen can vary greatly. Therefore, choosing the right catalyst is an important step. This is where AI chemist robots come into play.
The computing module on the robot, called the computational brain, combines machine learning algorithms with theoretical models. This is to analyze experimental data obtained by the robot and large-scale simulation data.
Also Read: Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Takes Aerial Photos of Perseverance Robot
As the robot works to gather information, it sends this experimental data to a cloud server, where the computational brain uses machine learning to perform tens of thousands of simulations. From there, he estimated the best way to produce oxygen. That data is then fed into a neural network model, which is quickly retrained and optimized with new experimental data from the robot.
The algorithm identifies the best combination of materials to synthesize the best OER catalyst, verified by AI chemists. The robot then drips optimized ‘catalyst ink’ on the meteor which is used, along with electrodes, to produce oxygen.
“This system can also be used to make many other chemicals and compounds,” the researchers wrote in the paper. Source: Live Science
2023-12-01 11:35:00
#China #Creates #Highly #Sophisticated #Chemical #Robot #Capable #Producing #Oxygen #Mars #Space #Space
