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Meet Our Team at #HRI2025 in Melbourne!

Posted on by Katherine Christensen

Meet Our Team at HRI2025 in Melbourne! Researchers from 4 of our 5 programs will be at the ACM/IEEE Human-Robot Interaction Conference next week!

Workshop Presentations
* Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality for Human-Robot Interaction Workshop (VAM-HRI) (3 March)
* QUT (Queensland University of Technology) PhD researcher, Jasper Vermeulen & postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dr Alan Burden will lead the in-person session, featuring guest speaker Associate Professor Wafa Johal
* Workshop Organisers: Selen Turkay, Maciej Woźniak, Gregory LeMasurier, Glenda Caldwell, Jasper Vermeulen, Alan Burden
* PhD researcher Yuan Liu will present: “Augmented Reality for Human Decision Making & Human-Robot Collaboration: A Case Study in Manufacturing.”

* Cultural Robotics: Diversified Sustainable Practices (3 March)
Organised by: Belinda Dunstan, Jeffrey TKV Koh, Hooman Samani, Müge Belek Fialho Teixeira

Demonstrations
* QUT PhD researcher James Dwyer (4-5 March)
* “What Would Jim Henson Do? Roleplaying Human-Robot Collaborations Through Puppeteering”, co-developed with Stine Johansen & Markus Rittenbruch

Paper Presentations
* University of Technology Sydney Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dr Fouad Sukkar & A/Prof Teresa Vidal-Calleja (5 March, Trust & Safety session)
“Enabling Safe, Active, and Interactive Human-Robot Collaboration via Smooth Distance Fields.” by Usama Ali, Fouad (Fred) Sukkar, Adrian Müller, Lan Wu, Cédric Le Gentil, Dr Tobias Kaupp, Teresa Vidal Calleja

* Dr Stine Johansen & Prof Markus Rittenbruch (4 March, 1B: Sound, Voices, Smells session)
“Embodied Composition for Imagining Robotic Sound Space”, authored by Stine Johansen, Yanto Browning, Anthony Brumpton, Jasper Vermeulen, Wei Win Loy, Jared Donovan, Markus Rittenbruch

* Jasper Vermeulen & Dr Alan Burden (5 March, Late Breaking Report)
“Investigating Human Factors in Mako-Assisted Total Knee Arthroplasty Surgeries”, by Jasper Vermeulen; Alan Burden; Glenda Caldwell; Müge Belek Fialho Teixeira; Matthias Guertler

* Visiting PhD researcher from The Australian National University Amir Asadi (4 March, Late Breaking Paper)
“Redrawing Boundaries: Systemic Impacts of Rehabilitation Robots in Clinical Care Settings”, by Amirhossein Asadi, Damith Herath, Grant Shaw, Glenda Caldwell, Elizabeth Williams

* Prof Markus Rittenbruch & Dong An (Late Breaking Paper)
“The Design of Extended Reality-enabled Tangible Interaction to Enhance the Interaction with Collaborative Robots” by Dong An; Markus Rittenbruch; Leo Razayan

Lab Visit – Friday 7th March
* Intelligent Robotics Lab at Swinburne University of Technology
See our Swinburne team’s robots in action! Contact Prof Mats Isaksson to book.

Our Quality Assurance & Compliance researchers from Swinburne, Michelle Dunn and Chris McCarthy, will also be attending the conference!

Full program HERE.

Meet our E.P.I.C. Researcher, Valeria Macalupú

Posted on by Katherine Christensen


Valeria Macalupú is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Human-Robot Interaction program (P2), sessional educator and interdisciplinary designer at Queensland University of Technology.

We interviewed Valeria 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 am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Human-Robot Interaction program (P2). I am also an industrial designer at heart, which was my bachelor’s degree in Peru. My research background is in co-designing social robots, particularly for aged care and service environments. Over the last 5 years, my research journey has focused on how design impacts robot acceptance, interaction, and integration in human spaces.

At the Centre, I contribute to shaping how cobots are designed for real-world use, ensuring they align with human needs, habits, workflows, and expectations. The long-term goal is to develop truly integrated robots into workplaces and society, making them more intuitive, accepted, and useful.

Why did you decide to be a part of the Australian Cobotics Centre?
I was drawn to the Centre because of its collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to robotics. My work sits at the intersection of design, robotics, and environment interaction, and the Centre provides a unique space to bridge these fields. The amazing work done at Program 2 allowed me to extend my knowledge across aged care and pedagogical areas to healthcare and manufacturing ones, which fills me with excitement.

Being part of a team that includes engineers, designers, and industry partners allows me to explore how we can design robots that truly work for people, not just technologically but socially and practically.

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

One of my proudest projects is HELPII, where I contributed to researching and designing a social service robot for aged care. The fantastic team at the QUT Centre for Robotics (QCR) created this robot and developed the technology. We were invited to find a real market opportunity in aged care, and through multiple studies and visits to residential aged care facilities, we determined the best applications and tasks for the robot. I highlighted key design decisions that support understanding the real needs of staff and residents and ensuring the technology fits into their daily lives.

What made it meaningful was collaborating across disciplines and bringing the team together to see that robot design comes with many considerations, from colour and material theory to environmental systems and emotional design. Working with roboticists, architects, and aged care professionals to bridge gaps in communication and expectations was a brilliant experience. Particularly visiting and studying a facility with 10 robots in place! This project solidified my passion for HRI and showed me the real-world impact of thoughtful design.

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

I want to reshape how we design and implement robots in the home, workplaces and public spaces. Technological advancements often drive robotics, but thoughtful design plays a crucial role in ensuring robots are functional, intuitive, and widely accepted.

My goal is to establish better design, adoption, and co-habitation practices, ensuring robots are not just tools but seamlessly integrated into human environments. I hope my work lays the foundation for robots that feel as natural in our world as any other tool we use today.

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

I could probably talk about design and decor in everyday life and how subtle decisions in design shape our interactions, experiences, and even behaviours. Design is everywhere, from how we intuitively use technology to how spaces influence our emotions. Otherwise, I could go on and on about Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.

Exciting new collaborations are underway!

Posted on by Katherine Christensen

Quality Assurance and Compliance researchers, Dr. Mariadas Capsran Roshan (Swinburne University of Technology) and PhD researcher Munia Ahamed, visited Cook Medical in Brisbane to discuss upcoming projects as part of Munia’s PhD research.

They were joined by Dr. Valeria Macalupú (Human-Robot Interaction Postdoctoral Research Fellow at QUT), Gareth Keen (Cook Medical’s Manufacturing Engineering Manager), Kettina Materna (Cook Medical Continuous Improvement Lead), and Dr. Yuan Wang, contributing to an insightful and productive discussion.

A special thanks to Cook Medical for hosting—exciting developments lie ahead!

Learn more about the Quality Assurance and Compliance program and Munia’s project HERE.

2025 AIRAANZ Conference

Posted on by Katherine Christensen

In early February, our Human-Robot Workforce Program Co-Lead, Associate Professor Penny Williams and Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dr Melinda Laundon were at the 2025 AIRAANZ conference co-hosted by Pasifika at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington and Massey University.

They presented their conference paper s on a range of work and technology research including labour shortages in manufacturing.

 

New Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dr Valeria Macalupú

Posted on by Katherine Christensen

We are pleased to welcome Dr Valeria Macalupú as our newest Postdoctoral Research Fellow!

Valeria joins the QUT (Queensland University of Technology) team where she will be working within our Human Robot Interaction program under the supervision of Program co-Lead Associate Professor Jared Donovan!

Valeria will be researching the role of collaborative robots in enhancing manufacturing processes and enabling non-invasive manipulation in surgical settings. Her work aims to bridge the gap between innovative robotic technologies and their practical adoption in industry, with a focus on designing intuitive, user-centered systems.

With a PhD in Interaction Design from QUT and a strong foundation in Industrial Design, Valeria has led multidisciplinary research projects that co-design social and service robots through participatory design, co-design methods, and ethnographic studies. She has collaborated closely with partners in the aged care and robotics industries to create impactful solutions. Valeria’s research interests lie in human-robot collaboration, technology acceptance, and exploring the social dynamics of robotics in real-world environments.

Welcome to the team, Valeria!

Meet our E.P.I.C. Researcher, Danial Rizvi

Posted on by Katherine Christensen


Danial Rizvi is a PhD researcher based at the University of Technology Sydney supervised by Gavin Paul on Project 4.4 Data analytics and process validation of collaborative robots and automated processes.

We interviewed Danial recently to find out more about why he does what he 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 Robotics researcher working with Collaborative robots in the Quality Control and Quality Assurance Space.

Why did you decide to be a part of the Australian Cobotics Centre?
After completing my undergraduate degree in industrial robotics from Purdue University, I was eager to impact manufacturing. It is astounding how much manufacturing waste contributes to global emissions, and I felt the ACC’s goals closely aligned with mine.

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

The fun thing with my PhD is that I’m constantly working with amazing people on new projects so it’s really hard to pick a favourite. Most notably I was able to improve manufacturing safety by enabling maintenance workers to engage with their tasks more using haptics.

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

I hope to improve our understanding of traditional manufacturing principles to better leverage robots in reducing manufacturing waste.

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

I could talk about how Star Trek has consistently improved our understanding of technology and its capabilities while shedding light on what it means to be human.

2024 Industry Symposium and Cobot mini-Expo

Posted on by Merryn Ballantyne

The Australian Cobotics Centre successfully hosted its first Industry Symposium and Mini-Expo on Thursday, 5th December 2024, at the QUT Kelvin Grove campus in Brisbane. This engaging event, sponsored by ARM Hub AI Adopt Centre and the Queensland Government’s Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing and Regional and Rural Development, brought together over 100 manufacturers, researchers, and industry professionals to explore the latest advancements in advanced manufacturing technologies and discuss the evolving role of humans in the future of manufacturing.

Event Highlights

Keynote talk

Professor Cori Stewart, CEO of ARM Hub gave a keynote talk about the current state of Australian manufacturing and how AI can enhance productivity.

Industry talks

During the event, we heard from industry partners of the Centre about their experiences of cobots and related technology:

 

Panel Discussion: “The Future of Australian Manufacturing: From AI to Humanoids, Where Does the Human Fit?”

One of the standout moments of the event was the panel discussion facilitated by Professor Jonathan Roberts, Director of the Australian Cobotics Centre. Panelists included:

  • Dr Cornelis van Niekerk, Weld Australia
  • Associate Professor Penny Williams, QUT Centre for Decent Work and Industry and Australian Cobotics Centre
  • Dr Sue Keay, Robotics Australia Group
  • Richard (Ric) Pruss, Workr Labs

This lively discussion, facilitated by Centre Director, Professor Jonathan Roberts, explored the transformative impact of technologies like AI and humanoid robots on manufacturing. The panel also addressed the importance of maintaining a human-centered approach in an increasingly automated industry, sparking thought-provoking dialogue among attendees.

Mini-Expo

The mini-expo was a highlight for many participants, offering hands-on experiences with cobotic technologies. Live research demonstrations and stands from exhibitors including DCISIV Technolgogies, Queensland XR Hub, ARM Hub AI Adopt Centre, the Queensland Government’s Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing and Regional and Rural Development showcased the potential of these innovations to enhance productivity, improve workplace safety, and support the competitiveness of Australian manufacturers.

Looking Ahead

Events like this symposium play a crucial role in strengthening industry connections and disseminating research outcomes.

For those who couldn’t attend, stay tuned for future events and opportunities to engage with the Centre’s groundbreaking work. Check out our program and project pages to learn more about our ongoing projects and upcoming initiatives.

We extend our gratitude to all speakers, panelists, and attendees who made the 2024 Industry Symposium a resounding success.

 

ARTICLE: How Vocational Education and Training (VET) looks to meet the skills needs of the advanced Manufacturing Sector

Posted on by Katherine Christensen

As manufacturing moves to more advanced methods of production that utilises technologies such as cobots, vocational education and training (VET) providers are under increasing pressure to develop and deliver training that meets the evolving needs of the advanced manufacturing sector. This article uses the notion of employability to present three themes emerging from my research to unpack how skills are perceived and understood by those involved in provision and delivery of vocational education for advanced manufacturing.

Readiness: Laying the Groundwork for Success

In courses like Electrotechnology, higher-level math and literacy are prerequisites for success. VET providers look to support students with a range of programs including in class support to help bridge literacy, numeracy and digital abilities gaps of new students, ensuring they are better equipped to handle complex technical training.

Teachers are critical to ensuring readiness. As industries increasingly shift in the use and application of technology, trainers and training providers need to also keep pace but may lack familiarity with modern technologies such as robotics and automation. Investment in teacher development is essential to ensure they can deliver training that meets the current demands of industry.

VET providers must also ensure that their training equipment and facilities reflect the new technological landscape. This can be a significant hurdle, as systemic factors related to capital expenditure for public providers often restrict the ability to invest in advanced tools and machinery, requiring support from industry partners.

Adaptation: Responding to Changing Skills Needs

Adaptation underscores the importance of providers’ ability to respond to the changing skills needs of the workforce. While VET institutions recognize the need to evolve, the process of revising training packages is often slowed by conflicting industry interests and other stakeholder agendas.

To counter this, VET providers have increasingly turned to alternative forms of training. Microcredentials have emerged as flexible solutions to upskill or reskill workers in emerging areas like autonomous technologies and robotics. These shorter, more targeted programs can be developed quickly and are designed to address specific industry needs, even if they fall outside the scope of formal qualifications. Institutions are also offering hybrid courses that combine in-person and online elements, allowing workers to access training more flexibly. This adaptability is crucial as industries face rapid technological advancements and a need for workers with specialized skills.

Collaboration: Bridging the Gap Between Education and Industry

Collaboration emphasises the importance of partnerships between educational institutions, industry, and government to effectively meet the workforce’s evolving needs, and ensure that training is relevant and up to industry standards.

New initiatives like higher apprenticeships, which combine trade qualifications with university degrees, are emerging. These programs require careful coordination between VET and university sectors to ensure that students receive the necessary support and meet the varying requirements of both systems.

Industry partnerships also extend beyond course design to include equipment sharing and resource pooling. Industry partners help to overcome capital investment limitations of VET institutions by providing the latest equipment such as cobots. This reciprocal arrangement helps both parties. Industry partners gain access to skilled workers trained on the latest equipment, while VET providers can offer students hands-on experience with tools and equipment used in workplaces.

Moving Forward

Through readiness, adaptation, and collaboration VET providers can better prepare learners for the future workforce. Ensuring that learners enter training with the right foundational skills, adapting training offerings to meet the rapidly changing technological landscape, and fostering strong collaborations with industry and higher education institutions are all key steps in skilling a workforce capable of thriving in technologically complex workplaces. Ongoing collaboration between education providers, industry, and policymakers will be key to ensuring workers have the skills necessary to succeed in the advanced manufacturing industry.

2024 Centre Awards

Posted on by Merryn Ballantyne

At the annual ACC Symposium, an awards evening was held with nominations put forward by Centre members in the lead up to the event. Our annual awards were a great way of celebrating the achievements of our people and their collaborative efforts over the past 12 months. The event is hosted by our Centre Director, Professor Jonathan Roberts.

2024 winners included:

  • Research Achievement: The Achievement award is awarded to a person that has made an outstanding contribution to ACC-related research.
  • Contribution to Public Debate: The award for Best Contribution to Public Debate is awarded to an individual or team who has exhibited outstanding thought leadership on any ACC related topic and its impact on society.
  • Best Collaborative Research output: The Best Collaborative Research Output is awarded to researchers who have worked together to conduct collaborative research relevant to the ACC, as evidenced by this research output.
    • WINNER: Dr Fouad (Fred) Sukkar,  for his work with THWS, Prof Tobias Kaupp, Usama Ali, Adrian Müller
  • Best Event: The award for Best-Profile Raising Event is presented to the individual or team who best represent the aspirations of the Centre.
    • WINNER: Sparking Innovation, Weld Australia Roadshow at Swinburne 
  • Emerging Leader: The award for Emerging Leader is awarded to the individual who provides guidance and inspiration to their peers and has displayed promising leadership skills.
    • WINNER: Jasper Vermeulen, QUT PhD Researcher
  • Quiet Achiever: The Quiet Achiever award is for a person that has produced an impressive amount of research outcomes in the last 12 months or made significant research progress.
  • EPIC Centre Citizen: The award for Centre Citizen is awarded to a person that embodies the spirit of the Centre and fosters a supportive, innovative, inclusive and fun environment as well as being an all-round achiever who displays positivity and resourcefulness.
  • Whoopsie Daisy: The Whoopsie Daisy Award honours an individual who, when faced with an unexpected challenge or mistake in their work, demonstrated resilience and transformed the situation into a valuable learning opportunity. This award celebrates their ability to adapt, grow, and turn setbacks into successes, showcasing the strength of innovation and perseverance in overcoming obstacles.
    • WINNER: Dr Alan Burden, QUT Postdoctoral Research Fellow
  • Industry Champion (individual): The Industry Champion Award is presented to a person who has demonstrated a strong commitment to engaging and collaborating with industry. This award celebrates leadership in fostering partnerships between industry and academia, driving innovation in automation, and promoting the integration of cobotics technology to enhance productivity, safety, and sustainability.
  • Industry-Research Collaboration: (Team) This award is awarded to a project team, consisting of industry and researchers who have collaborated to create impactful solutions that address real-world challenges. The team’s efforts demonstrate a successful integration of industry needs and research innovation and showcases the benefits of industry and academic collaboration.
    • WINNERS:
      • The Swinburne team and Universal Shower Base: Prof Mats Isaksson, Mariadas Roshan, Jagannatha Pyaraka, Rebecca Lowery
      • Translation projects with Stryker: Partner Investigator, Dr Tom Williamson, Dr Alan Burden,  Dr Stine Johansen, James Dwyer, Jasper Vermeulen, Yuan Liu, Prof Markus Rittenbruch, Prof Glenda Caldwell, A/Prof Müge Belek Fialho Teixeira , A/Prof Jared Donovan and Dr Matthias Guertler.

Continue reading “2024 Centre Awards”

Celebrating Research Excellence: Australian Cobotics Centre’s Research Showcase 2024

Posted on by Merryn Ballantyne

On 5th December 2024, the Australian Cobotics Centre proudly hosted its annual Research Showcase, celebrating the achievements of its researchers over the past 12 months. This year’s event provided an invaluable opportunity for the Centre’s HDR (Higher Degree by Research) students and early career researchers to present their research outcomes in a dynamic and engaging format through lightning talks and research demonstrations.

The showcase was hosted by Professor Glenda Caldwell, Associate Director of Research Training, who emphasised the importance of professional development and communication skills in research careers. In line with the Centre’s training and development program, researchers delivered three-minute lightning talks—a presentation format that challenged them to distill their research aims, outcomes, and impact into a 3 minute talk suitable for a multidisciplinary audience.

3 minute lightning talks

The showcase featured a diverse range of topics reflecting the Centre’s interdisciplinary focus on collaborative robotics in manufacturing and beyond. The following presentations were delivered:

  1. James Dwyer – Rethinking Our Approach: Rapid Prototyping, Fast Failures, and Facilitating Interdisciplinary Conversations in Cobotics
  2. Stine Johansen – Robotic Blended Sonification
  3. Akash Hettiarachchi – The Impact of Collaborative Robots (Cobots) on a Diversified Manufacturing Workforce
  4. Phuong Anh Tran – A Research Study on the Design of Human-Cobot Manufacturing Work
  5. Munia Ahamed – Trust Your Robot: Building Acceptance in Human-Robot Teams
  6. Nadimul Haque – Framework for Adapting Robot Skills to Novel Tasks
  7. Jagannatha Pyaraka – Minimal Key-Point Learning for Robot Skill Transfer from Videos
  8. Zongyuan Zhang – Using a Mobile Robot for Sanding: The Non-Rigid Fixation Problem
  9. Jasper Vermeulen – How Humans (Still) Play a Pivotal Role in Successful Human-Robot Teams
  10. Yuan Liu – Human Decision Making in Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC)
  11. Alan Burden – Optimising Cobot Integration with AR Simulation

Demonstrations

Rapid Robot Prototypes, presented by James Dwyer, PhD researcher, QUT, Human Robot Interaction research program

Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) has the potential to improve work across various sectors, but it also brings changes to work practices, processes, and ways of thinking. Practical design tools are needed to connect the technical advancements in HRC with the real-world needs and expectations of end-users.

This demonstration introduces the ‘kinematic puppet,’ a novel, cost-effective, modular interface that makes it easy to explore robotic movements and interactions. By physically simulating different scenarios and controlling robot actions manually through “puppeteering”, it enables teams to test HRC concepts without needing specialised robotics skills. This hands-on approach provides actionable insights into the usability, efficiency, and ergonomic suitability of robotic platforms across different HRC scenarios and tasks.

Interactive distance field mapping and planning (IDMP) framework, presented by Dr Fouad Sukkar, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, UTS; Nadimul Haque, PhD researcher, UTS, Biomimic Cobots research program

Human-robot collaborative applications require scene representations that are kept up-to-date and facilitate safe robot motions in dynamic scenes. In this exhibition we showcase an interactive distance field mapping and planning (IDMP) framework that handles dynamic objects and collision avoidance through an efficient Gaussian Process field representation. In terms of mapping, IDMP is able to fuse point cloud data from single and multiple sensors, query the free space at any spatial resolution, and deal with moving objects without semantics. In terms of planning, IDMP allows seamless integration with gradient-based reactive planners facilitating dynamic obstacle avoidance for safe human-robot interactions. Video, code, and datasets are publicly available at https://uts-ri.github.io/IDMP.

Real-Time Collaborative Action Tracking (ReCAT) system, presented by Yuan Liu, PhD Researcher, QUT, Designing Socio-Technical Robotic Systems research program

The Real-Time Collaborative Action Tracking (ReCAT) system demonstrates how human pose, movement, and gestures can be detected and tracked through a camera in real time. Using advanced computer vision techniques, attendees can see firsthand how a webcam captures and interprets behaviour, offering valuable insights to support the future of human-centred design in human-robot collaboration.

XR Application for Cobot Interaction and Workflow Optimisation, presented by Dr Alan Burden, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, QUT, Designing Socio-Technical Robotic Systems research program

The demo showcases an Augmented Reality (AR) interface using a Meta Quest headset and Unreal Engine 5. The AR system employs simple visual and interactive elements to send commands to a cobot, enabling it to perform tasks like picking and placing items with precision. The AR interface highlights the 3D environment, giving users a clear, intuitive understanding of how cobots can be effectively integrated into real-world spaces.

Quality Assurance & Compliance using haptic feedback, presented by Dr Mariadas Roshan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Swinburne & Danial Rizvi, PhD researcher, UTS, Quality Assurance & Compliance research program

Demonstrations include a video showcasing the use of the Spot Dog as an assistant, another video illustrating how live feedback can be utilized to optimize robotic welding processes, and a live demonstration of a haptic device designed for inspections in manufacturing parts with restricted access. Gain insights into practical applications of robotics and emerging technologies aimed at improving efficiency and quality assessment in industrial environments.

The 2024 Research Showcase not only celebrated achievements but also reinforced the Centre’s commitment to supporting the professional growth of its researchers. By focusing on communication, engagement, and collaboration, the Centre is equipping its students and early career researchers with the tools they need to drive innovation in cobotics and advanced manufacturing.

We congratulate all presenters on their contributions and look forward to seeing their continued impact in the coming year.