Why bother? The only reason we send out automated probes is because our technology is barely able to handle exploration of our solar system. They might do the same to explore their immediate stellar neighborhood, but they would have little incentive to settle or conquer the galaxy. It's not even clear we would feel the urge to do that after we had explored a few hundred systems and occupied a few dozen. For any spacefaring civilization, it would not be necesssary to find new habitable planets to live on, any of the nearby stars would have plenty of energy and and matter to satisfy their industrial requirements or any home-planet shortages. Even self-replicating von Neumann probes are unlikely, their own biological reproduction would provide all the explorers needed.