Faced with an ageing population and a skills shortage, Europe’s largest economy turned to robots to power its economy. Last year alone, 26,000 robotic machines were put in place in Germany helping alleviate the seven million workers the country is expected to lose by 2035.
The situation in Australia is not vastly different where the skills shortage is compounded by falling productivity. The recently released National Robotics Strategy came at an opportune time according to the country’s leading automation and robotics integrator, Applied Robotics. The company is at the forefront of onshoring and reshoring initiatives to help build Australia into a globally competitive manufacturing powerhouse.
There are still questions and some gaps in the National Robotics Strategy, but it has generally been well received by industry. It offers interesting insights and will help our critical industry chart a suitable path forward. The strategy focuses on driving wider adoption, particularly in manufacturing; building skills and capabilities; and enabling a collaborative ecosystem. These are also the core values that Applied Robotics has been practicing since its inception 37 years back.
The company firmly believes that there is deep robotics expertise available in Australia. This was evident after a fire burnt Milliken & Co’s US factory to the ground. The textile and floor covering manufacturer set a timeline of six months to restore their operations to meet global demand. Applied Robotics was entrusted with the rebuild and embarked on one of the largest engineering projects globally at the time, with an estimated cost of half a billion US dollars. In Milliken’s original setup, the robots took 12 seconds to stack a single tile. In designing the rebuild, Applied Robotics developed custom vacuum conveyors that were able to stack four tiles per second making it the world’s fastest carpet tile handling solution. This solution was subsequently adopted in Milliken’s UK and Japanese factories, an example of the world class expertise developed in Australia.
No doubt, the local manufacturing industry has faced a challenging period over the past couple of decades, but Australia’s future is not its past. Applied Robotics has long been a proponent of employing robotics and automation technologies to scale Australia’s manufacturing sector and address labour shortages.
An example is the solution the company developed for Unilever to automate their infeed personal care and hygiene dosing lines. A specially developed gripper picked various sized bottles, decanted them and collapsed the cartons, an onerous manual task that was also difficult to accomplish because of the challenge in getting workers.
The Strategy Paper highlights other local innovations such as SwarmBot, an autonomous farming vehicle that can be used for spraying, weeding and harvesting. It has been developed by Queensland based SwarmFarm Robotics which is one of the few companies worldwide with real robots already working on farms. Another Australian company, Emesent, is a world leader in autonomous and lidar mapping with drones, including in GPS-denied environments.
It is evident that Australia has robust robotics sector posting continued revenue growth which can be bolstered by government initiatives like the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund. If properly nurtured and supported by sound policy, this sector has the potential to add $170 billion to $600 billion per year to our GDP by 2030.
Applied Robotics is convinced that Australia is a global leader in robotics research and smart specialisation, particularly in autonomous systems and advanced manufacturing. The company continues draw on its expertise to promote robotics adoption by working with Australian manufacturers across a variety of sectors including renewables, intralogistics, food & beverage, pharmaceuticals and recycling, among others.
Although a step in the right direction, the Strategy Paper falls a bit short in the area of manufacturing strategy. There was a noticeable absence of any discussion around the Future Made in Australia initiative which is meant to address the major structural and strategic challenges that the local economy faces. Australia needs strong domestic capability in robotics to deliver economic resilience and security.
To translate the sentiment laid out in the Strategy Paper into positive outcomes, Applied Robotics is of the firm view that we need strong and consistent government support to encourage private investment in key industries. This will help the Australian economy navigate and prosper through the current challenges.
This should be high on the government’s priority list as annual productivity growth slowed to 1.2 percent per year in the 20 years to 2021-22. This is the lowest level in six decades. Applied Robotics is calling for a committed investment in automation and robotics that will help increase annual productivity growth in Australia by 50 to 150 percent. These technologies have the potential to add a further $170 billion to $600 billion per year to our GDP by 2030.
Supporting this growth will require a steady supply of high-quality talent. While Australia boasts some fine institutions turning out excellent graduates, the Strategy Paper missed the opportunity to turn the spotlight on education partnerships with industry. Applied Robotics is doing its part by investing in local talent through comprehensive training and development programs. Countries with strong industry-academia collaborations are often more competitive globally due to a robust innovation ecosystem. Educational partnerships in Australia may not be attractive as they do not appear to be beneficial to industry. The Strategy Paper could have looked at co-investments and government funding to take these partnerships to the next level.
Australia can also better leverage its successes in applying robotics solutions. No doubt, Wi-Fi and Cochlear are great Australian innovations but it will be beneficial to do a deep dive into the country’s recent successes in applying robotics solutions particularly in the areas of mining and farming. Robotics solutions typically require significant investment and showcasing Australia’s proven capabilities will encourage more organisations to commit to the journey.
Without a doubt, the National Robotics Strategy is a welcome first step as it turns the spotlight on to a key aspect that is critical to nation building. Applied Robotics is calling on the government to join industry in a “whatever it takes approach” and move the National Robotics Strategy from a document to a national priority.
At the heart of this revolution are machines that move with purpose and precision:
“The global adoption of industrial robots has dramatically reduced costs while increasing capabilities,” explains Dr Wong.
“With 4.3 million industrial robots installed worldwide as of 2023, up from 1.3 million in 2013, these technologies are mature, reliable and more accessible than ever. While China leads with 250,000 installations, Australia has only about 8,000 units – showing significant opportunity for growth.”
Beyond robots, intelligent transport and gripper systems create factory-wide coordination:
This integration creates what Dr Wong describes as ’a dance of coordinated movement’ where products flow smoothly through production without the rigid infrastructure of traditional automation.
The ability to perceive and adapt to variations makes all the difference:
Capral Aluminium’s packing system shows these technologies in action. Their system utilises advanced 3D cameras to identify over 6,000 unique aluminium profiles – even with notoriously difficult reflective surfaces – and then determines optimal picking and packing strategies on the fly.
Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and other advanced software – once only affordable for large enterprises – now act as the affordable, cloud-based brains behind the operation, tying everything together:
“When we deployed Australia’s first AI-based factory automation system for Capral in 2018, the intelligent algorithm could identify, grasp and nest each unique extrusion shape in real-time – something impossible with traditional automation.
“This concept was also central to Arnott’s revolutionary biscuit assortment system, which precisely processes up to 105 biscuits per second,” explains Dr Wong.
When Legrand Australia needed to maintain local light switch manufacturing in the face of offshore competition, they turned to adaptive automation. We designed a system that handles configurations from single switches to six-gang units with minimal changeover time, doubling production output while simultaneously reducing labour requirements.
Macnaught’s semi-autonomous assembly solution demonstrates how Australian manufacturers can make smaller runs profitable. The system handles over 110 SKUs of industrial equipment while doubling production rates – precisely the flexibility required to meet Australia’s diverse market demands.
“When products can’t be produced cost-effectively locally, they inevitably move offshore. Adaptive automation helps Australian manufacturers compete on factors beyond just labour cost – enabling some operations to be brought back onshore,” notes Dr Wong
Unlike fixed automation, which becomes obsolete when products change, modern systems can be reprogrammed to meet new requirements, protecting capital investments over the long term.
The results speak for themselves.
Capral Aluminium’s implementation of AI-powered robotic packing slashed freight volumes by 50% while accelerating distribution and improving quality.
What’s remarkable is that this was achieved while handling an ever-changing range of 6,000 unique profiles with customisations – precisely the kind of challenging environment where traditional automation would fail.
At an Australian audio technology manufacturer, our innovative assembly system achieved a 95% first-pass success rate, reducing the number of operators required from 2-3 to a single operator.
Look beyond individual machines to the entire process flow. Consider how materials, information and finished products move through your operation. The most elegant solution for one department might create bottlenecks elsewhere.
Successful implementations require meticulous attention to specifications, edge cases and integration points. These can make or break commercial success over time. Rigorous testing and validation before implementation aren’t optional luxuries – they’re essential investments.
Every successful automation project needs a dedicated leader who can bridge technical and business perspectives while driving the project to completion. Without this champion, even the best technology can falter.
“The planning phase has the most influence on final results. The most brilliant project management or technology solution cannot overcome a poorly conceived business case,” explains Dr Wong.
For Australian manufacturing, success isn’t about competing on volume – it’s about leveraging adaptive technologies to create competitive advantages through flexibility, quality and innovation.
Adaptive automation breathes new life into the local industry with systems that adapt as quickly as market demands change, turning traditional disadvantages into our greatest strengths. And the transformation is just beginning.
