Compact Task-Aligned Imitation Learning for Laboratory Automation
Robotic laboratory automation has traditionally relied on carefully engineered motion pipelines and task-specific hardware interfaces, resulting in high design cost and limited flexibility. While recent imitation learning techniques can generate general robot behaviors, their large model sizes often require high-performance computational resources, limiting applicability in practical laboratory environments. In this study, we propose a compact imitation learning framework for laboratory automation using small foundation models. The proposed method, TVF-DiT, aligns a self-supervised vision foundation model with a vision-language model through a compact adapter, and integrates them with a Diffusion Transformer-based action expert. The entire model consists of fewer than 500M parameters, enabling inference on low-VRAM GPUs. Experiments on three real-world laboratory tasks - test tube cleaning, test tube arrangement, and powder transfer - demonstrate an average success rate of 86.6%, significantly outperforming alternative lightweight baselines. Furthermore, detailed task prompts improve vision-language alignment and task performance. These results indicate that small foundation models, when properly aligned and integrated with diffusion-based policy learning, can effectively support practical laboratory automation with limited computational resources.
Code (0)
등록된 구현이 없습니다.
Similar Papers 제목 키워드 기반
Automating Care by Self-maintainability for Full Laboratory Automation
The automation of experiments in life sciences and chemistry has significantly advanced with the development of various instruments and AI technologies. However, achieving full laboratory automation, where experiments co…
SchedulingPerspective on Utilizing Foundation Models for Laboratory Automation in Materials Research
This review explores the potential of foundation models to advance laboratory automation in the materials and chemical sciences. It emphasizes the dual roles of these models: cognitive functions for experimental planning…
Scalable Low-Cost Laboratory Automation: A Digital Twin-Integrated Robotic Platform for Autonomous Liquid Handling (RAINBOT)
Laboratory automation accelerates discovery, yet its adoption is constrained by the high cost, proprietary design, and limited remote supervisability of commercial liquid-handling systems. This work presents RAINBOT\text…
Differentiable Skill Optimisation for Powder Manipulation in Laboratory Automation
Robotic automation is accelerating scientific discovery by reducing manual effort in laboratory workflows. However, precise manipulation of powders remains challenging, particularly in tasks such as transport that demand…
Reinforcement LearningIncorporating Large Language Models into Production Systems for Enhanced Task Automation and Flexibility
This paper introduces a novel approach to integrating large language model (LLM) agents into automated production systems, aimed at enhancing task automation and flexibility. We organize production operations within a hi…
Language ModelingLanguage ModellingLarge Language Model