Artificial intelligence is undergoing a profound transition from a computational instrument to an autonomous originator of scientific knowledge. This emerging paradigm, the AI scientist, is architected to emulate the complete scientific workflow-from initial hypothesis generation to the final synthesis of publishable findings-thereby promising to fundamentally reshape the pace and scale of discovery. However, the rapid and unstructured proliferation of these systems has created a fragmented research landscape, obscuring overarching methodological principles and developmental trends. This survey provides a systematic and comprehensive synthesis of this domain by introducing a unified, six-stage methodological framework that deconstructs the end-to-end scientific process into: Literature Review, Idea Generation, Experimental Preparation, Experimental Execution, Scientific Writing, and Paper Generation. Through this analytical lens, we chart the field's evolution from early Foundational Modules (2022-2023) to integrated Closed-Loop Systems (2024), and finally to the current frontier of Scalability, Impact, and Human-AI Collaboration (2025-present). By rigorously synthesizing these developments, this survey not only clarifies the current state of autonomous science but also provides a critical roadmap for overcoming remaining challenges in robustness and governance, ultimately guiding the next generation of systems toward becoming trustworthy and indispensable partners in human scientific inquiry.

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