A Programmable Optics Cloud Laboratory
Abstract
Laboratory automation can improve experimental throughput, accessibility, and reproducibility, but many robotic laboratory systems remain difficult to reconfigure. This challenge is especially pronounced in free-space optics, where experiments are built from heterogeneous components, require precise alignment, and are frequently rearranged as experimental goals change. In this work, we present the Programmable Infrastructure for Cloud Optics (PICO), a robotic cloud-laboratory architecture designed to make reconfigurable optical experiments easier to program, operate, and reproduce. PICO provides a common domain-specific abstraction and software layer through which experimental configurations and actions can be controlled across different user interfaces. This enables the same physical laboratory to support remote interactive use, scripted experiments, autonomous routines, and features such as version control. We implement PICO on a robotic free-space optics platform and demonstrate it through an experimental case study.
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BibTeX
@misc{vaidya2026programmable,
title = {{A Programmable Optics Cloud Laboratory}},
author = {Sachin Vaidya and Caio Silva and Seou Choi and Joshua Chen and Marin Soljačić},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.16413},
eprint = {2609.16413},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.16413},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A Programmable Optics Cloud Laboratory
AU - Sachin Vaidya
AU - Caio Silva
AU - Seou Choi
AU - Joshua Chen
AU - Marin Soljačić
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/14
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.16413
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.16413
AB - Laboratory automation can improve experimental throughput, accessibility, and reproducibility, but many robotic laboratory systems remain difficult to reconfigure. This challenge is especially pronounced in free-space optics, where experiments are built from heterogeneous components, require precise alignment, and are frequently rearranged as experimental goals change. In this work, we present the Programmable Infrastructure for Cloud Optics (PICO), a robotic cloud-laboratory architecture designed to make reconfigurable optical experiments easier to program, operate, and reproduce. PICO provides a common domain-specific abstraction and software layer through which experimental configurations and actions can be controlled across different user interfaces. This enables the same physical laboratory to support remote interactive use, scripted experiments, autonomous routines, and features such as version control. We implement PICO on a robotic free-space optics platform and demonstrate it through an experimental case study.
ER -