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Author: Katherine Christensen

ARTICLE: Project Introduction: What Is Trust, Really? Rethinking Human-Robot Interaction Through Design

Posted on by Katherine Christensen

While engineers often focus on functionality and reliability, real-world deployment reveals a deeper challenge: if people feel uneasy, confused, or disconnected when working with robots, adoption falters. This is especially true in manufacturing, where seamless human-robot collaboration is essential for productivity and safety. 

A new strategic project led by Dr Valeria Macalupu, postdoctoral researcher in QUT’s Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) program, aims to address this challenge by exploring how design affordances, such as physical form, materials, and expressive behaviours, can foster trust between humans and robots. Co-funded by the QUT Design Lab, the project is titled “What is trust really? Exploring Rich Interactions and Design Affordances in Human-Robot Interaction through Co-design.” 

Rather than treating trust as a by-product of performance, the project investigates how visual, tactile, and behavioural cues can signal intent, competence, and emotional safety. These cues are often overlooked in traditional engineering approaches but are critical to how people interpret and respond to robotic systems. 

The research will be developed and disseminated through a series of co-design workshops, iterative prototyping, and a public exhibition. The goal is to generate insights into how robots can be designed to feel more intuitive, approachable, and safe. 

For industry, this project offers practical design guidelines to help engineers and developers create robots that are not only functional but also intuitively acceptable to human users. In manufacturing contexts, this could mean smoother integration of collaborative robots, reduced training time, and improved worker satisfaction. 

More broadly, the project contributes to a growing body of research that sees trust not as a by-product of performance, but as a designable quality. By understanding how people interpret and respond to robots through their physical presence, this work supports the development of safer, more empathetic, and more effective robotic systems. 

Across the Centre, our postdoctoral research fellows lead a diverse range of projects, from long-term initiatives to shorter, more focused pieces of work. This latest project from Dr Macalupu exemplifies the kind of strategic, interdisciplinary work that drives innovation and impact across our programs. 

This project is jointly funded by the Australian Cobotics Centre and the QUT Design Lab.  

Read more about the project: Project 2.9: What is trust really? Exploring Rich Interactions and Design Affordances in Human-Robot Interaction through Co-design » Australian Cobotics Centre | ARC funded ITTC for Collaborative Robotics in Advanced Manufacturing

Get in touch with Valeria: v.chira@qut.edu.au   

“Exploring Human-Robot Interaction: James Dwyer’s Seminar on Mechamimicry and Prototyping Tools”

Posted on by Katherine Christensen

PhD researcher, James Dwyer presented a seminar titled ‘The Art of Mechamimicry: Designing Prototyping Tools for Human-Robot Interaction’ for the QUT Centre for Robotics today.

Supervised by Jared Donovan, Markus Rittenbruch, Dr Valeria Macalupú and Rafael Gomez FDIA, James’s work explores how embodied, low-fidelity prototyping can make abstract HRI concepts tangible and accessible. Through a case study in Robotic Assisted Surgery, he demonstrates how combining physical role-play with virtual simulation helps stakeholders externalise tacit knowledge and co-design better robotic systems.

With a background in Industrial Design and Psychology, James brings a unique perspective to collaborative robotics in both surgical and manufacturing contexts.

Read more about his project, based at QUT (Queensland University of Technology), here: https://lnkd.in/gZXCsyb9

Advancing Humanoid Robotics: Beyond Impressive Demonstrations

Posted on by Katherine Christensen

Humanoid robots have captured the public’s imagination with their awe-inspiring demonstrations, from backflips and dances to folding laundry. These performances often leave us in awe of their capabilities, showcasing highly sophisticated technology. But at the heart of these demos lies a crucial distinction that is often overlooked: what these robots can do in controlled environments is vastly different from what they can achieve in the real world.

At Swinburne University of Technology (SUT) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researchers are shifting the focus from simply impressing audiences to solving the real challenges that come with integrating humanoid robots into everyday environments. Their work aims to bridge the gap between performance-based robotics and true autonomy.

Performance vs. Perception in Humanoid Robots

Most advanced humanoid robot demonstrations rely heavily on predefined motion sequences, scripted environments, and external assistance. The robots perform complex tasks by following a series of carefully orchestrated routines, often created through motion capture, reinforcement learning, or imitation learning in simulated settings. While visually stunning, these robots lack the semantic understanding and real-time reasoning necessary for true independence.

In the real world—whether in homes, hospitals, or factories—robots need much more than impressive pre-programmed actions. They need to:

  • Understand the context of objects and their surroundings

  • Sense the environment in real-time

  • Adapt their control and actions to handle the unpredictable nature of the world

This ability to adapt and truly comprehend is one of the greatest challenges facing robotics today. It’s not enough for robots to simply perform well in rehearsed routines. They must also be able to perceive and respond to dynamic environments.

Collaboration for Real-World Applications

At SUT, the research is aimed at developing humanoid robots that can interact with the world as we do: through contextual awareness and adaptive control. The team is working to address the gap between what robots can perform and how they understand the world around them, an essential step toward making robots more practical for real-world applications.

In this exciting area of research, SUT is eager to collaborate with industry partners to explore collaborative opportunities for research, development, and innovation. The goal is not just to impress but to create robots that can interpret and respond meaningfully to their environments, paving the way for their deployment in real-world scenarios.

As the Australian Cobotics Centre continues to explore the diverse capabilities of collaborative robots (cobots), we look forward to seeing how these advancements in humanoid robotics will contribute to the broader field. Whether in healthcare, manufacturing, or beyond, the future of humanoid robots is about intelligence, not just impressive demonstrations.

High Achiever HDR Student Award Recognition

Posted on by Katherine Christensen

In June 2025, Yuan Liu was honoured to receive the High Achiever HDR Student Award from the QUT Faculty of Engineering. This recognition is a testament to the dedication and hard work put into her research journey. She is deeply grateful to her principal supervisor, Professor Glenda Caldwell, for the nomination, and to Professor Markus Rittenbruch, Associate Professor Müge Belek Fialho Teixeira, Dr. Alan Burden, and Dr. Matthias Guertler for their ongoing support and guidance. This prestigious award serves as motivation for Yuan to continue advancing her research and pushing the boundaries of her work.

ARTICLE: Automating Asset Management Tasks in Factory Settings

Posted on by Katherine Christensen

As the Asset Management Council of Australia emphasizes, effective asset management provides organizations with insights across four critical domains: physical, information, financial, and intellectual assets. When implemented successfully, it enhances decision-making, strengthens operational resilience, and delivers long-term value. This capability serves as a key differentiator between agile, modern factories and slower, fragmented legacy operations.

The next frontier of asset management explores the shift from human-dependent monitoring to autonomous systems—where assets effectively manage themselves.

Under the Australian Cobotics Centre’s (ACC) Quality Assurance and Compliance program, researchers at the UTS:Robotics Institute are advancing this concept through the deployment of Boston Dynamics’ robotic platform, Spot. In this implementation, Spot autonomously navigates industrial environments, constructs a digital map, captures detailed imagery of equipment such as pipes, coils, and panels, and performs inspection tasks without human supervision.

Collaborative robots, or cobots, play a critical role in this evolving landscape. Designed to complement rather than replace human workers, cobots enhance manufacturing resilience by integrating human judgment with machine-level consistency and precision. Studies by [1] and [2] highlight the synergy of cobots and human teams in improving factory adaptability.

In this approach, robots such as Spot undertake detailed inspection routines, while humans execute follow-up tasks—tightening components, initiating repairs, or notifying human operators through shared digital interfaces. A supporting fleet management system, as outlined by [3], enables real-time tracking of cobot performance, usage, and maintenance status, effectively treating each cobot as a digital asset within the broader ecosystem.

In field trials, Spot demonstrated 90 minutes of continuous operation without a battery swap, covering 7.5 kilometers of factory floor—equivalent to 75,000 m². This capacity enables a single robot to replace multiple manual inspection rounds per shift in a typical Australian SME manufacturing facility.

A key innovation in the system is an integrated asset-management dashboard that connects directly to the SPOT’s API. By aggregating live telemetry, annotated inspection imagery, and equipment metadata, the dashboard eliminates the need for manual data entry. During initial deployments, Spot completed multi-kilometre inspection loops and uploaded over 6,000 annotated images per shift, delivering a comprehensive, timestamped view of equipment health. The dashboard’s real-time capabilities position it as a dynamic decision-support tool, advancing the transition from reactive maintenance to proactive, autonomous operations.

This trial represents a foundational step toward scaling autonomous survey robotics across industry. The integration of AI-driven perception, robotic mobility, and collaborative tasking is redefining the asset management paradigm.

The convergence of autonomous robotics, AI-powered vision systems, and collaborative machines signals a fundamental transformation in industrial asset management. Tasks once characterized by manual oversight are becoming intelligent, continuous processes. Initiatives such as those under the Australian Cobotics Centre offer a forward-looking model where factory systems are capable of sensing, interpreting, and responding with minimal human input—enabling safer, smarter, and more resilient operations across the manufacturing sector.

Citation: https://www.nbnco.com.au/blog/the-nbn-project/the-power-of-robotics-to-lift-digital-capability

Text – Asset Dashboard

[1]           J. Pizoń, M. Cioch, Ł. Kański, and E. Sánchez García, “Cobots Implementation in the Era of Industry 5.0 Using Modern Business and Management Solutions,” Adv. Sci. Technol. Res. J., vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 166–178, Dec. 2022, doi: 10.12913/22998624/156222.

[2]           A. R. Sadik and B. Urban, “An Ontology-Based Approach to Enable Knowledge Representation and Reasoning in Worker–Cobot Agile Manufacturing,” Future Internet, vol. 9, no. 4, Art. no. 4, Dec. 2017, doi: 10.3390/fi9040090.

[3]           B. I. Ismail, M. F. Khalid, R. Kandan, H. Ahmad, M. N. Mohd Mydin, and O. Hong Hoe, “Cobot Fleet Management System Using Cloud and Edge Computing,” in 2020 IEEE 7th International Conference on Engineering Technologies and Applied Sciences (ICETAS), Dec. 2020, pp. 1–5. doi: 10.1109/ICETAS51660.2020.9484266.

Celebrating Excellence in 3MT: Our Centre’s Outstanding Participants

Posted on by Katherine Christensen

We are thrilled to share the incredible achievements of our PhD researchers in the recent Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition! The 3MT is a prestigious event where researchers present their work in just three minutes, capturing the essence of their thesis in an engaging and accessible way.

Akash Hettiarachchi’s Win at the QUT Faculty of Business and Law

A massive congratulations to our PhD researcher, Akash Hettiarachchi, for winning the QUT (Queensland University of Technology) Faculty of Business and Law’s 3MT® Final! Akash’s presentation on the impact of collaborative robots (cobots) in enhancing diversity—particularly gender and generational diversity—in the manufacturing workforce was truly inspiring. This victory paves the way for Akash to advance to the Grand Final at the Graduate Research Student Showcase on 11th September at QUT. The winner of this final will represent Australia at the Asia-Pacific competition, where over 900 universities from 85 countries compete.

Akash is part of our Centre’s Human-Robot Workforce team, led by A/Prof Penny Williams, Prof Greg Hearn, and Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr. Melinda Laundon. You can read more about Akash’s project here: Read More. We are incredibly proud of Akash and excited to support him in the next stage of his journey!

Recognising Other Remarkable Participants

We would also like to acknowledge the outstanding achievements of two of our researchers who participated in the 3MT competition:

  • Danial Rizvi, a PhD researcher from UTS, represented our Centre in the UTS competition. His insightful presentation was a reflection of his dedication to advancing knowledge in his field.

  • Jacob Dawson, an Associate PhD, won the QUT Faculty of Engineering (FoE) 3MT® round and will join Akash in the QUT Grand Final on 11th September.

2025 HDR & Postdoc Winter Retreat: Career Pathways and Success Strategies

Posted on by Katherine Christensen

The 2025 HDR & Postdoc Winter Retreat brought together HDR students and early career researchers from across various disciplines, providing them with invaluable insights into shaping their future careers.

Day 1 – Defining Professional Identity and Exploring Careers Beyond Academia

Day 1 focused on preparing researchers for career pathways beyond their PhDs. Led by Associate Director for Research Training, Professor Glenda Caldwell, the day’s activities helped participants reconnect with the broader skills developed during their research journey. Workshops included:

  • Defining Professional Identity: Led by Karen Cavu (FHEA) and Glen Murphy (QUT Entrepreneurship), researchers learned how to articulate their professional identities, empowering them to recognize the value they can bring to various industries.

  • Informational Interviews & Networking: Dr Abigail Winter (SFHEA) and Karen Cavu emphasized the power of informational interviews, guiding researchers on how to leverage these conversations for career growth.

  • Industry Careers Panel: Featuring Dr Tom Williamson (Stryker), Dr Anjali Jaiprakash (Gelomics), and Dr Maria Hameed Khan (QUT Centre for Decent Work & Industry), the panel shared inspiring stories about transitioning from academia to industry, showcasing the diverse career paths available for researchers.

The day concluded with a relaxed networking session with drinks and pizza, providing an opportunity to connect and reflect on the day’s insights.

Day 2 – Research Career Success on Your Own Terms

The second day featured a full-day workshop led by Prof Inger Mewburn, also known as the Thesiswhisperer, titled “Research Career Success (on your own terms).” This workshop brought together researchers from various QUT research centres, focusing on:

  • The real career landscape for researchers today.

  • Exploring diverse career opportunities for PhD graduates.

  • Practical strategies for career development, including traditional networking and the use of cutting-edge AI tools.

Throughout the workshop, Inger gathered live feedback, which reflected the growing confidence and evolving career perspectives of the participants. The session provided both a reality check and an empowering look at the many career opportunities available to researchers.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone involved, especially Prof Inger Mewburn for leading such a transformative session. We look forward to putting these insights into action as we continue to support our researchers in their career development.

ARTICLE: Solving manufacturing’s labour crunch: Why job quality and collaborative robots must go hand-in-hand

Posted on by Katherine Christensen

The Albanese Government’s Future Made in Australia agenda has committed $22.7 billion over the next decade to rebuild sovereign manufacturing capability, capture low-carbon supply-chain opportunities and lift advanced industry productivity. Yet money alone will not solve the worker shortages that have persisted since COVID-19. Even after a 4.5 per cent fall in the February quarter, there were still more than 15,000 unfilled manufacturing positions and vacancy rates remained 44 per cent higher than before the pandemic. 

Although the proportion of vacant jobs in Australia decreased to 2 per cent in March, that headline masks deep, persistent shortages in key trades and technician roles. Unless industry and government tackle the root causes, the Future Made in Australia investments risk running into a human-capital wall. 

Qualitative research conducted by the Australian Cobotics Centre’s (ACC’s) Human-Robot Workforce Research Program and presented at the 2025 AIRAANZ conference by postdoctoral researcher Dr Melinda Laundon was based on interviews with 23 senior stakeholders across government, industry bodies, unions, and education providers. The research highlights three intertwined problems contributing to why enough workers aren’t joining or staying in the manufacturing sector.  

  • Earnings quality. At the sector level, manufacturing pay has struggled to keep pace with construction and transport, and is eclipsed by mining.  
  • Job security perceptions. Although views are changing to recognise that automation can make jobs safer and more interesting and increase production capacity, some workers still worry that automation may remove jobs. 
  • Working environment. Rigid shift patterns sit awkwardly beside the flexibility many Australians tasted during the pandemic. Under-investment in training may also leave employees uncertain about career progression. 

The research suggests some policy and organisational actions that may reduce labour shortages by improving job quality, attraction and retention. Stakeholders argued that raising hourly rates is necessary but not sufficient; manufacturers also need to: 

  • Provide up-skilling pathways. Investing in training for robotics, programming and digital twins both raises earnings potential and signals that workers have a future in the firm.  
  • Design human-centric technology deployments. Cobots can augment dirty, dangerous and highly repetitive tasks, reducing physical strain and freeing people for higher-value problem-solving.  
  • Embed employee voice. Involving operators in the redesign of workflows and role changes builds trust and ensures that cobots and other advanced manufacturing technologies can be implemented in a way that enhances job quality. 

These suggestions align with the government’s Industry 4.0 ambitions yet remain challenging for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that make up 98 per cent of Australian manufacturers. Fast turnaround and lower-cost microcredentials can be more accessible for SME owners and workers. Government and industry associations also have a role to play in promoting a manufacturing career narrative, highlighting success stories and the capacity for workers to move to tech-enabled roles with higher pay and autonomy.  

The ACC partners with manufacturers and technology providers to pilot human-robot solutions in real manufacturing contexts, drawing on expertise from design, engineering, quality assurance, and people management researchers. For governments rolling out Future Made in Australia programs and organisations considering cobot adoptions, it shows how technology adoption can lift productivity and job quality, not trade one off against the other. 

Insights on China’s Humanoid Robotics Advancements: Dr. Alan Burden Weighs In

Posted on by Katherine Christensen

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) recently highlighted China’s rapid advancements in humanoid robotics, with some experts predicting that the country may soon surpass the United States in this emerging field. The article features valuable insights from our very own Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dr. Alan Burden, who offers expert commentary on why humanoid robots are capturing the public’s imagination.

Dr. Burden, based at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), explains that humanoid robots are appealing because their human-like form makes them more relatable. This allows the public to more easily envision these robots playing real-world roles, despite the technology still having some distance to go in terms of functionality and autonomy.

Dr. Burden’s perspective sheds light on the significance of humanoid robots as a symbol of technological progress, and he offers insights into the potential they hold for future applications.

For a deeper dive into this topic, check out the full article here: Read More.

Meet our E.P.I.C. Researcher, Sheila Sutjipto

Posted on by Katherine Christensen

Sheila Sutjipto is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Biomimic Program where her research explores physical human–robot interaction (pHRI). She is particularly interested in how robotic manipulators can intelligently respond to subtle environmental cues whether through deliberate, high-level actions or instinctive, reflex-like behaviours.

We interviewed Sheila recently to find out more about why she does what she does.

 

Tell us a bit about yourself and your research with the Centre? Include the long-term impact of what you are doing.

I’m a postdoctoral research fellow for Program 1: Biomimic Cobots at the Australian Cobotics Centre. I hold a bachelor’s degree in mechanical and mechatronic engineering and completed a PhD in robotics exploring how collaborative robots (cobots) can effectively interact with humans in shared environments. My research focuses on physical human–robot interaction (pHRI), and I am particularly interested in how manipulators can intelligently respond to subtle cues from the environment, either with purposeful, high-level behaviours or instinctive, reflex-like reactions. In the long term, I hope my work supports the adoption of robotic systems in industry.  

Why did you decide to be a part of the Australian Cobotics Centre?

The Australian Cobotics Centre offered a unique opportunity to conduct research that’s both academically rigorous and closely aligned with industry needs. There’s a diverse range of projects across the Centre, which makes it an interesting place to learn about other facets of robotics and their impact on how people interact with and benefit from this technology in their workplace. 

What project are you most proud of throughout your career and why?

One project I’m proud to have contributed to is the HALO project. It was a unique experience because I was involved from the very start, which meant I could work closely with our industry partner to understand their needs and the challenges they faced. That insight shaped how we approached ideation, prototyping, and testing, both in the lab and on-site at a mine, and with their ongoing feedback, we were able to deliver a robotic system that worked with their operational needs. 

I had the opportunity to contribute to both the software and hardware design of a custom mobile manipulator for rock scaling and learned a lot about managing a research project along the way. It was especially rewarding to see the system used by operators in the field and know the work could potentially make a difference. 

It was also valuable to be able to work alongside great researchers, many of which are with the ACC, including A/Prof. Gavin Paul, Prof. Teresa Vidal Calleja, A/Prof. Marc Carmichael, and Tony Le, and to see many students contribute to the project through their capstone projects, which made the experience more fulfilling. 

What do you hope the long-term impact of your work will be?

I hope my work helps develop cobots that support people whether that’s by making tasks safer, reducing physical strain, or just making things a bit easier for people day to day. Through the projects I’ve been part of, I hope some of that research finds its way into real workplaces and makes a practical difference. 

Aside from your research, what topic could you give an hour-long presentation on with little to no preparation?

Aside from my research, I could probably give an hour-long talk on where to get good coffee in Sydney. It’s not a definitive guide though, it’s more like a collection of places I like and keep going back to.