I don’t know how much experience you have with automation but reading the above, I would assume that similar to testing, you have none. Please let me know if I am wrong with this assumption 
I think it would do you and your research project a lot of good to explore Club Posts To Help You Get Started With Software Testing And QA (specifically the automation related ones). Missing Layer From The Test Automation Pyramid is also an excellent thread to explore relating to the layers that automation should happen at.