The Four-Phase Ring

A self-driving lab is organized as a repeating cycle of four phases: design, make, test, and learn. In the design phase the model proposes what to try next. In the make phase that proposal becomes a physical sample. In the test phase the sample is measured. In the learn phase the measurement updates the model, and the cycle begins again. The cycle is what makes the system self-driving: each phase feeds the next, and the last phase changes the first.