World Economic Forum (WEF) representatives have visited the site for what the Queensland Government says will be Australia’s first Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Hub, in Brisbane.
The ARM Hub is billed as an $18 million advanced manufacturing initiative being built by a partnership comprising the Queensland Government, Queensland University of Technology, the Urban Art Projects (UAP) and other organisations.
The Queensland Government announced in January 2019 that it would invest $7.71m in the hub over four years, with an additional $10m coming from other partnership members.
WEF representatives were invited to Queensland by Leanne Kemp Queensland Chief Entrepreneur and co-chair of the WEF’s Global Future Council on the Future of Manufacturing.
Kemp said Queensland was leading the world in open, collaborative and democratised technology on the factory floor.
The minister for manufacturing Cameron Dick said at the launch the ARM Hub would provide practical production and manufacturing advice in a real-life factory environment, enabling Queensland manufacturers to learn cutting-edge robotic technologies and techniques, and develop industry skill and expertise to apply to their own businesses.
He said the four WEF representatives had visited the site because they recognised the strength and the potential of the state’s advanced manufacturing capabilities.
“They see our state as a ‘lighthouse’ for Industry 4.0 and were attracted here to learn more about the techniques we’ve adopted to help our manufacturers transition to advanced manufacturing capabilities and create more jobs.”
He said the ARM Hub and other state-led initiatives were part of the government’s Advanced Manufacturing 10-Year Roadmap and Action Plan.
According to the plan Queensland has been testing robotics for many years:
- the Port of Brisbane was Australia’s first autonomous port;
- the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision at QUT developed the Crown-of-Thorns Starfish robot to control the spread of reef-eating starfish;
- research and development into robotics
includes CSIRO’s Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies specialising in field robotics ; - the University of Queensland is pioneering innovations in autonomous mining.
And, it says: “In recognition of the state’s depth of technological capability, Queensland has been named as the national headquarters of the first Defence Cooperative Research Centre for Trusted Autonomous Systems (DCRC TAS).”
