Australia’s universities and research institutions are at the forefront of robotics innovation, but the nation is still failing to translate that into scalable solutions to drive economic activity.
Additional public and private investment in the sector could add $201 billion to the country’s economy by 2040, according to a new report.
It could also increase annual incomes by $6500 and create an average of 128,900 new jobs a year, the report by ACIL Allen, and commissioned by Amazon Australia, released on Tuesday shows.
Tye Brady, the chief technologist at Amazon Robotics and the founder of robotics incubation program MassRobotics, told AAP in an interview from Boston that robotics was transforming the entire nature of work.
Amazon credits its 300 robotic warehouses around the globe, including an enormous facility in western Sydney, with helping make its operations safer and easier while creating new job categories and upskilling opportunities for its employees.
For example, its Hercules mobile robots can lift up to 500kg of inventory, which Amazon says allows its employees to reduce physical strain and focus on work that requires human judgment and skill.
“So I took the job at Amazon because it’s very applied. It’s not parkour, it’s not robots doing backflips,” Mr Brady said.
“It’s the real, the mundane and the repetitive that we’re eliminating, and we’re making it easier and better in a safer environment for our employees.
“It has completely transformed our business in the right way – with job growth, with good jobs, with upskilling opportunities.”
Beyond e-commerce, robots had much to offer Australia’s mining, agriculture, fishing and oil and gas industries, Mr Brady said.
“They’re ready for this, right? And when you do it right, you become more productive, you create more jobs, you create a better job, and you also upskill your employees,” he said.
Australia has some “legends” in the field of robotics, Mr Brady noted, but it needed a “spark” to translate that academic capability into widespread commercialisation and adoption.
“Get your startups out there, get a pool of venture capitalists, have that infrastructure, have the ecosystem, have the community support, and let’s get one startup at a time and start to grow a cluster,” he said.
“Because when you grow the cluster, then guess what? More talent comes to you. They get to learn from each other. They become more productive. So the cluster gets bigger and bigger.
“There’s tremendous opportunity in this.”
Realising that potential requires a coordinated effort, the report says, to create stronger pathways and partnerships that connect Australia’s university research capabilities with industry expertise and real-world opportunities.
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