History of Australian Robotics

This is a wiki to document the History Of Australian Robotics (HAR) - The title refers to a focus on robots that are created in Australia (Australian Robotics) rather than the more general History of Robotics in Australia - which would refer to both the creation and adoption of robotics by Australian industry. There have only been a handful of articles that have documented the History of Australian Robotics. It is revealing that if you ask chatGPT - The history of robotics and the development of the first robot in Australia is not as well-documented or widely known as some other countries with longer traditions in robotics and automation, such as the United States, Japan, or Europe.

The first Australian robot that I am aware of is the Automated Wool Harvesting System

Some early work in the early 1990’s - Numbat, UWA TeleRobot, RoboSorter and Beeline AutoSteer

Commercial

In the late 1980's Warwick Felton developed DetectSpray. The IP behind this was sold and became WeedSeeker.

In 1996 (Agriculture) Beeline Technologies manufactured Beeline AutoSteer technology^[1]. This was acquired by Hemisphere GNSS^[2] which in turn was split into two sections for their GPS line and precision Ag line. The precision Ag line was bought by AgJunction^[3], and the GPS line was bought by CNH Industrial^[4].

In 1999 (Mining) we had the LHD Automation project. Originally developed by CSIRO's RASG the vehicle was manufactured by Elphinstone in Burnie, the control box was manufactured by RCT Global in Perth, and the navigation system manufactured by Dynamic Automation Systems in Melbourne. Everything was made here in Australia. In the 2003, Caterpillar acquired both Elphinstone and DAS to create their product called Minestar Command Underground. The vehicles are now manufactured overseas^[5], the control system manufactured in Pittsburg^[6] with some software development in Brisbane, and in 2022, RCT Global was acquired by Epiroc^[7]

In 2003 (Logistics) we have the AutoStrad Project. Originally developed by ACFR for Patricks, with the creation of two Australian Companies: Patrick Technology and Systems, and NavTech Engineering. Most of the technology was acquired by Finish company Kalmar, and NavTech was acquired by British company Halma.

In 2013, QUT and ACFR developed AgBot. The Queensland Government invested in a partnership with Swarmfarm. QUT continued the development of AgBot II, and ACFR developed SwagBot

In 2014, Automated Positioning Systems (APS) who developed guidance systems for mining, was acquired by Wenco^[8] - a subsidiary of Hitachi CM^[9].

In 2016, NDC Automation who developed navigation systems for AGVs, was acquired by Dematic^[10] a subsidiary of Kion Group

Research

Australian National University
- 1996 ANU Robotics Systems Lab lead by Alex Zelinsky, which later created the Seeing Machines spin-off company, and in 2004, the group was largely moved to NICTA (which later became CSIRO Data61)