Robotics in Australia

Adam Amos is an Australian Mechatronics Engineer and the founder of Robotic Systems, a specialised tech hardware design & manufacturing agency based in Newcastle, NSW.

Adam specialises in accelerating the journey from idea to prototype and into manufacturing of other businesses' high value tech hardware products.

Ben works with EPE Oceania and is Consortium Director of ELO2, a 22 member industry-research collaboration to design and build Australia's first lunar rover and to undertake a lunar mission for the Australian Space Agency with NASA. His focus is leadership of industry-research collaborations to secure and grow prosperity for Australia, and he works closely with Defence and Space organisations and technical experts to develop and operationalise novel capabilities in cyber security, AI/ML, robotics & autonomous systems, and other critical technologies in the national interest.

Carbonix Founder, Dario Valenza will be presenting on ‘Using Avionics and Drone Technology for aerial data capture and ISR operations”, sharing insights into the unique drone capabilities required and use cases of successful deployment. The ability to provide real-time data and situation awareness to both maritime and ground-based teams is pivotal in the defence sector, and through specific drone capabilities and piloting, this information can be provided efficiently, quietly, precisely, and at scale.

Chris Shaw is the CEO of Advanced Navigation, a robotics and navigation technology company.

Chris earned his degrees in business and electronic engineering from the University of Western Australia graduating with First Class Honours. During this time, he was a research and development engineer at Entecho, a company focused on developing air taxis and aerial vehicles. Following this, he joined Cyber Technology, a company specialising in autonomous vehicles.

Joseph Kenrick is Technical Director of the ELO2 Consortium and heads up the Lunar Outpost Oceania office, based in Melbourne, Australia. He holds a Master's Degree in Space Resources and a Bachelor's Degree in Petroleum Engineering with a Minor in Economics from the Colorado School of Mines.

Joseph worked as Reservoir and Production Engineer in the oil and gas industry for several years before transitioning to the space industry. During his master’s studies, Joseph conducted research on mining water and regolith on the lunar surface.

Daniel is the founder and CEO of Chironix, a robotics software engineering company headquartered in WA which develops robot behaviours to meet the needs of business and people. Chironix operates throughout the Indo-Pacific region supporting defence, utilities and resources customers. 

Daniel Milford has an extensive federal government background, having worked in the Department of Defence in military planning, technology and complex capability realisation. He is a graduate of the Royal Military College Duntroon; Capability and Technology Management College (Joint); and Australian Command and Staff College (Joint). Daniel was also a research fellow with the Perth U.S. Asia centre, with a key focus on strategy as well as disruptive technology. He was a Finalist in the Young ICT Professional of the Year Awards in 2015. Daniel is also a Major in the Royal Australian Corps of Signals, Australia Army.

Dr. Clyde Webster, Founder and CEO of Crest Robotics, pioneers workplace safety with innovative robots tackling repetitive, strenuous, and hazardous tasks. With a bachelor's in mechatronics engineering and a PhD in robotics from the University of Technology Sydney, Clyde engineered the world’s first parrot-inspired climbing robot for performing repetitive and dangerous work at heights, a task critical for maintaining our ageing energy and telecommunications infrastructure. His expertise spans the space, energy, and mining sectors, including roles at Space Machines Company and at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Clyde envisions robots as pivotal for a more equitable, prosperous, and sustainable future.

Dr David Cole has been actively involved in the uncrewed systems industry Presentation Title: Controlling the "small and many": Lessons learnt from the civilian drone industry for over 10 years. 

Starting in 2013 with the founding a commercial drone services company before pivoting the company to focus on developing the FlyFreely drone management software platform in 2018. Dr Cole holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering and Doctor of Philosophy from James Cook University.  He is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He remains at the forefront of industry developments by being an active member of several industry bodies including JARUS, EUROCAE and USAN. His current interests centre around airspace integration, automation of regulations and automation of operations for both small and large uncrewed systems.

Dr Nathan Kirchner is a founding director of Robotics Australia Group. He has a proven and demonstrable track record of uncovering and imagining emerging real world, opportunities for cutting edge robotics research intentions and forging viable R&D to Deployment (R&D2D) pathways to their realisation. Over 15+ years in industry, and 10+ years in academia, initiating, shaping, establishing, driving and leading cutting-edge research driven enabling, transformative, and disruptive innovation.

Peter Milani is the founder and managing director of Ichor Autonomy. Peter Milani has a Master's Degree in Engineering and is a veteran roboticist.  He has been developing robots in industry and research institutions for over 12 years. He was an original member of Emesent Pty Ltd, a CSIRO spinout, specialising in UAV GPS-denied autonomy, mapping and perception. He was a member of the CSIRO Data61 DARPA SubTerranean Challenge Team, developing UAV perception and autonomy inputs.  He was also the first Lead Engineer of Swarmfarm Robotics, an agricultural robotics startup, and automated their first two UGV prototypes. Peter also served full-time as a General Service Officer in the Australian Army for 13 years, as both a Combat and Logistics Officer before separating and working in heavy mining with BMA in the Bowen Basin.