cs.AISep 3, 2026

A computable representation of the physical laboratory enables verifiable workflows

Authors: Xiaobo Li, Luyao Ge, Xiaohui Li, Lulu Guo, Ming Mao, Jiwang Zheng, Wenting Guan, Xin Yang, +3 more

Organizations: State Key Laboratory of Precision and Intelligent Chemistry, Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China · Center for Scientific Intelligence Innovation, Hefei, China · Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Abstract

Making science computable requires representations of both scientific knowledge and the physical world in which scientific claims are tested. A computable representation of the physical laboratory is established through typed research objects, capability-bound operations and a compositional workflow algebra. It provides the physical-world counterpart to machine-readable knowledge, expressing workflows as programs over evolving laboratory states with explicit dependencies, decisions, iteration and concurrency. The representation was implemented in a modular agentic robotic laboratory by binding formal operations to executable Function Skills. For diverse scientific intents, capability-relative workflows were generated, while stateful simulation propagated object transformations and verified operation preconditions and laboratory constraints before dispatch. The proposed representation and its engineering framework jointly establish a general computational interface between agent reasoning and capability-bound physical transformations, providing a foundation for end-to-end autonomous scientific discovery.

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