SEQ Robotics Innovation Corridor

In 2019, I was invited by the Queensland Treasury to submit an application for?QCAT (Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies) ?as an Innovation Precinct as part of their?SEQ City Deal Proposition . Whilst QCAT has hosted a diversity of tenants: BHP, RioTinto, CRCore, DSTG, and Emesent which would help qualify QCAT as a potential site, I became more interested in the idea of an?Innovation Corridor ?— spanning east-west from the Airport to Toowoomba. To this end I created the figure above.

Research and Teaching (Blue):

• CSIRO’s?Robotics and Autonomous Systems Group
• Queensland University of Technology? (QUT) —?Centre for Robotics
• University of Southern Queensland ?(USQ)
• University of Queensland? (UQ)
• Griffith University ?—?Autonomous systems
• Tafe QLD

Innovation Precincts (Green)

• Advanced Queensland’s — The Precinct
• Wellcamp Aerospace and Defence Precinct

Innovation Hubs (Orange)

• Advance Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Hub
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hub
• Immersive Technologies (XR) hub
• Queensland Manufacturing Institute
• AGtech and Logistics Hub
• Firestation101

Centres

• Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence (MILVECOE) ?— Rheinmetall
• Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies (QCAT) ?— CSIRO
• Trusted Autonomous Systems (TAS) Defence CRC ?— DSTG
• Australian Centre for Robotics Vision (ACRV) ?— ARC centre of excellence
• Australian Cobotics Centre ?— ARC training centre
• MetsIgnited? — industry growth centre
• Mining3 ?— former CRC

Testing Facilities

• Robotics Innovation Centre (RIC)
• Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) Pilot
• Military Test, Evaluation, Certification, and Systems Assurance (MILTECS)
• RACQ Mt. Cotton test facilities

Incubators

• ARC Hardware Incubator

SME’s

• RME Global
• RF Design
• CR Digital
• Micromelon
• Emesent
• AGJunction
• Mineware
• Skyborne Technologies
• Universal Field Robotics
• EPEquip

OEM’s

• Rheinmetall Defence Australia
• Hitachi Construction
• Komatsu Australia
• Caterpillar
• Hexagon Mining
• Boeing Australia —?Insitu Pacific
• Cyborg Dynamics Engineering
• Urban Art Projects (UAP)
• Macrobotix
• Australian Droid and Robotics? (ADR)
• Built in Australia (BIA5)
• Lyro
• Agtecnic
• Scott Automation and Robotics
• Built Robotics
• Freelance Robotics
• SSS Manufacturing

Operators:

• Downer Defence

Although this figure was originally created in 2019, the idea was conceived in two years earlier from three events:

1. Discussions with Brisbane Marketing leading up to?2018 ICRA? — the biggest robotics conference in the world — and the challenge that they faced in finding the hidden robotics capability in SEQ.
2. A meeting with an energy client who was in the process of buying robots from the US. I asked why he was not looking to Australian suppliers. He commented that the robotics industry in Australia is fragmented, invisible and has no supply chain.
3. A meeting with an OS OEM, where I asked why his company was not willing to publicise the location of their robotics research. His response was that he did not want to share this information with downstream competitors. My response was that he should be more worried by his upstream supply chain — in knowledge workers.

These events convinced me that I needed to help raise the profile of robotics in Australia and in particular in SEQ. This led to the formation of the?Sixth Wave Alliance .

Warning: As with all static figures, this figure will quickly date. My plan is to create a dynamic version driven from a database of companies, and I would like to include companies that provide services and hardware to these robotics companies (the robotics industry supply chain). Hence this page will be update at some stage.

Postscript - ICRA 2018 to the NRSS

In 2018 Brisbane hosting the?International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2018) . This is the biggest and most important robotics conference in the world, and this was the first time it would be held in the southern hemisphere. This activity was coordinated, with Brisbane Marketing, RDA, State and Federal Government support.?

This activity led to a number of related initiatives:

• Australian Robotics Roadmap ?sponsored by?Australian Centre for Robotic Vision (ACRV) ?
• Trusted Autonomous Systems Defence Cooperative Research Centre (TAS-DCRC)
• Sixth Wave Alliance ?(Federal) which lead to the?Robotics Australian Network ?
• Industry-led Regional Cluster (RDA)? sponsored the?Queensland Robotics Cluster
• Robotics Innovation Centre (RIC) ?hosted at?Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies
• Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing HUB ?and the subsequent?Australian Cobotics Centre ?(2021)

In 2020, we started on the?2nd Australian Robotics Roadmap ?-?released in 2022 ?

Which became a critical motivation for the federal government developing a?National Robotics Strategy.