The Robotics Opportunity for Australia

Creating benchmarks to be able to measure the growth and success of robotics on an ongoing basis is important. As Peter Drucker observed, “What gets measured gets managed.” South Korea’s “Intelligent Robot Industry Development Strategy” states their goal to expand the country’s production of industrial robotics and automation systems to be worth $6.15 billion and to increase the number of small and mid-size robot makers with sales of more than $46 million to 25. All by last year. The specificity of the targets is important, as it helps set a direction and a destination and you will know when you get there.

How should we measure the growth and success of robotics in Australia??This was one of the questions posed by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources 's Discussion Paper on the National Robotics Strategy.

And we came up with plenty of ideas. Read on to see some excerpts of what we believe are the opportunities for Australia in robotics and how we can chart a course to achieve them. This is all included in Robotics Australia Group submission to the National Robotics Strategy.

The Robotics Opportunity for Australia

Australia’s small population and the fact that we inhabit a large continent with a challenging climate and unique environment meansAustralians have had to become very good at field robotics. As we have relatively few people inhabiting a vast landmass, we have thousands of kilometres of infrastructure to inspect and maintain - bridges, roads, railways, powerlines, and pipelines - and we simply do not have enough people to do the work. For this reason, and to keep people safe from harm, Australia has become adept at developing technologies that are robust and can reliably work in extreme environments; that have low power requirements; and that can operate with limited communications - especially in GPS-denied environments such as underground and underwater. For example, Australia was one of the first countries in the world to automate its ports and also the first country in the world to automate many of its mines.

Field robotics is a particular opportunity for Australia as we have both the domain expertise, the local market and the potential for high growth through export to global markets. The Australian Government made early investments in field robotics via the Australian Centre for Field Robotics, CSIRO's Robotics and Autonomous Systems group and the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision. These initiatives have helped foster industry partnerships and drive innovation in the sector. Australia was a recognised world leader in field robotics until progressive defunding of the sector led to other nations catching up.?However, it is not too late to capitalise on our first mover advantage. As a horizontal industry sector, the vertical sectors where field robotics have the most enabling and transforming impact include: mining, energy (particularly renewables), construction, defence, infrastructure, agriculture, aerospace/space, logistics/transport, emergency/disaster response and the services sector such as real estate, sports and healthcare (incl. aged care).?It should also be recognised that ALL sectors of the Australian economy will be impacted by robotics and automation and we must prepare. The National Strategy should therefore address all sectors.?

Measuring Growth and Success

Like many parts of Australia’s tech sector, robotics is not recognised as an industry in the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification scheme (ANZSIC), used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to collect industry relevant data for benchmarking purposes. As robotics is not recognised as an industry in its own right, it is difficult to obtain consistent measurements of the size of the industry (how many companies), how many people it employs, how much revenue it generates and how much it contributes to Australia’s export income. Creating benchmarks to be able to measure the growth and success of robotics on an ongoing basis is important.

To measure the growth and success of Robotics in Australia we should consider adopting the following targets (and measures).

National Capability measures

• Develop Robotics and AI as a key industry: expand our sovereign Robotics and AI industry to be worth AUD 25 billion by 2026, and AUD 50 billion by 2030.
• Robotics and AI Venture Capital Investment of $5b per annum by 2025, with Australia increasing its venture capital per capita to at least $500 per person by 2030.
• Number of pure play Robotics companies 500 by 2027 and number of pure play AI companies 1,000 by 2027.
• Number of Series A funding to robotics and AI start-ups, 5 robotics start-ups per year by 2025 and 10 AI start-ups per year by 2025.
• Number of Robotics Unicorns 1 by 2025, 4 by 2027, 8 by 2032 and the number of AI Unicorns 2 by 2025, 8 by 2027, 16 by 2032 or develop a measure of # of companies above a value cap of $200m and work to increase this number.
• 5% of Australia’s largest tech companies are hardware/software companies with a further 10% of Australia’s largest tech companies to be AI-led by 2030.
• Increase in export value of Robotics and AI to Australian economy by 30% by 2030 above current benchmark data.
• Raise the level of Australian research and development as a percentage of GDP to 3% by 2030, with dedicated investment in Robotics and AI of $50 million per annum by 2025.

Trust, Inclusions and Responsible Development and Use measures

• ?Increase trust in Robotics and AI to 90% across Australia by 2030 (as measured by sentiment analysis).
• Increase Robotics and AI?literacy by 20% by 2030 compared to current levels (benchmarked according to understanding of what the technology is and how it is applied).

Skills and Diversity measures

• Train and educate 10,000 Robotics and AI specialists by 2026, including researchers, engineers, technicians and entrepreneurs.
• ?Increase Robotics and AI graduates to 20,000 per year by 2026 and 40,000 per year by 2030 (as measured by graduates from relevant university degree programs).
• ?Increase the number of people with trade qualifications to support intelligent machines such as mechanical and electrical trades (esp. those specialising in control) by at least 10% through VET programs.
• Develop a Robotics and AI Specialist Workforce of 100,000 by 2026 using mechanisms such as skilled migration (as measured by identification as specialist workers within the tech sector).
• Support upskilling with 20 high quality open online universally recognised Robotics and AI courses and microcredentials by 2030.
• Improve diversity of graduates and workforce to 30% women in technical roles by 2030 and with representative indigenous participation.
• Gather data on 4IR training such as type, engagement, utility, rate of completion.

Adoption measures

• Increase uptake of Robotics and AI by Australian companies to 30% by 2030 to be measured by ABS (like innovation).?
• Industrial robot population density of 500 by 2030 to aid ‘high value add’ manufacturing.
• Develop a measure of Field and Service robot intensity and set a target based on benchmark data.
• Increase in multifactor productivity in Australia to 2.5% by 2030 and 2.75% by 2040 attributable to AI-enabled robotics and automation initiatives.

Each day we will post another segment from the Submission to the National Robotics Strategy made by Robotics Australia Group after extensive consultation with Australia's robotics ecosystem.

About Robotics Australia Group

Robotics Australia Group is Australia’s peak body for the Australian robotics (and robotics-related) technology sector with a network of more than 5,000 and an international alliance with similar organisations in other countries. Our goal is to build a sustainable robotics industry by supporting the entire robotics ecosystem, from the companies building robots to those researching and developing new robotic technologies, robotics educators and enthusiasts, and the companies looking to adopt robots and robotics-related technologies. Our members and partners include large and small companies that create or adopt robotics technologies.

We have a lot of momentum to build on and we look forward to continuing to work with you. If you would like to support the work that we are doing?please consider joining as a Friend, Member or Sponsor.