Let's Talk Robotics

Joining me today is Dario Valenza, the founder of Carbonix. He has a passion for design and design thinking. This is the common thread that has led him to build yachts, planes, and cars - As well as create the teams and company structures to turn vision into reality.

He spent the first decade of his career working on racing yachts as a boatbuilder, designer, construction manager, and later as campaign manager.

His treasured achievements include being part of several America's Cup teams and pioneering full hydrofoiling for World Championship winning catamarans.

He applied the resulting specialist knowledge in composite aeroelastic structures to other fields, from automotive to architectural to movie productions.

This trajectory diversified into aerospace applications including founding drone technology company and aerial data acquisition specialist Carbonix.

Joining me today (129) is Colonel Robin Smith, OBE CSC.

Robin Smith is the inaugural Director of the Army’s Robotic & Autonomous Systems Implementation & Coordination Office (RICO) within Future Land Warfare Branch of the Australian Army HQ. RICO’s role is to inspire, innovate, educate and lead the exploration of the application of emerging and disruptive technology for Army, including autonomy and AI, Quantum Technologies and alternative power and energy. He has overseen Army’s exploration of autonomous systems since 2017 after he authored the first Australian Army Robotic and Autonomous Systems Strategy.

He is a logistician by background and served for over 30 years in the British Army before transferring to the Australian Army in 2017. He has commanded at all levels up to and including Regimental level and deployed a number of times. He was made an Officer of the Order of British Empire (OBE) in 2013 and awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross (CSC) in 2022. He has a background in Electronic Engineering and has fulfilled a number of roles in the Joint logistics domain at the tactical and operational levels.

Joining me today is Jonathan Cook. Jonathan is currently the Electrical Engineering Manager for Intelligent Robotics. He enjoys working with customers to understand their problems and create new industrial automation solutions to drive value for their business. His experience includes bringing together advanced sensing technologies, vision processing algorithms, robotics, and controls engineering to solve novel problems across multiple industries. Industries includes Food and Meat Processing, Mining, Manufacturing, and Defence. He possesses a Bachelor of Engineering (Infomechatronics) and a Master of Engineering Management from QUT, Australia.

Joining me today (eps 127) is Adam Stacey. Adam is a co-founder of Micromelon Robotics, an education company developing tools and resources to simplify the teaching of robotics, coding, and engineering. Adam leads the software engineering team developing the Micromelon Code Editor & Robot Simulator and is also part of Micromelon's school programs and curriculum development. Prior to co-founding Micromelon, Adam worked in computer vision research with light field cameras and teaching university engineering courses.

Founder of Sunshine Coast based robotics and engineering start-up, Royal Robotics and Red Dirt Robotics. Jameson has been travelling around Australia for the last two years, inspiring the next generation of tech savvy kids coming through by introducing them to robots. The robotics company, Micromelon, have been sponsoring him and he credits them for his start in his journey.

- 2020 Generation Innovation Top 3 Finalist

- 2019 Australian National FTC Robotics Championships winner

- 2019 Second place Houston World Festival FLL Robotics Championships

Joining me today is James Rennie. James founded Australian UAV in early 2013 after a 17 year career in technical roles in consulting engineering companies. A keen aero modeller as a kid, James developed a lifelong passion for aviation that collided with his professional data and analytic skills. Before hanging up his transmitter and getting a desk job he completed over 2000 commercial drone flights that took took him around Australia and as far afield as Antarctica and Armenia. James is recognised as one of the leaders in drone service delivery in Australia and has presented internationally. AUAV has been listed in the top 20 drone companies globally for the past three years by Drone Industry Insights based out of Germany. As CEO and Chief Remote Pilot at AUAV his role is largely office-based now but he still has a passion for all things flight related.

Joining me today is Adam Amos. Adam is an Australian Mechatronics Engineer and the founder of Robotic Systems, an on-demand manufacturer based in Newcastle, NSW.

Adam specialises in accelerating the journey of initial idea to working prototype and into manufacturing of other business high value tech hardware products. Adam’s mission is to empower every tech hardware business with on-demand globally competitive scalability.

Adam has led Robotic Systems to be recognised by Deloitte as being in the top 100 fastest growing hardware businesses in APAC 2021 as well as Robotic Systems customers being awarded 4 patent’s for tech developed on their behalf. Adam is the host of the First Sale podcast sharing insights from international tech hardware designers about their journey from initial idea to their first sale.

Adam has spoken at The Institute of Instrumentation, Control and Automation, Hunter Innovation Festival, Advanced Manufacturing Growth Center, The University of Adelaide, FemPowered, AustMine, CoderGroup, Hunternet Events, Hunter Manufacturing Awards and been interview by outlets such as NewyTech People, BigSmoke, News.com.au and Ticker.

As a Mechatronics Engineer Adam is always looking to share insights about the development journey of modern hardware + software projects at universities, events and festivals. To organise for Adam to speak at your event please contact (02) 4967 1072 or email [email protected]

Joining me today is Andrew Bate, Managing Director & CEO

Andrew is the creator and CEO of SwarmFarm Robotics. He is the chief visionary, leveraging his experience as a successful grain farmer to lead the 2015 launch of SwarmFarm Robotics. He grew up on a cropping and cattle farm south of Emerald in Queensland and studied Agronomy at university. He spent his earlier life as an agronomist in the grain and cotton industries, before returning to grain and cattle farming, and then co-founding SwarmFarm Robotics.

Today, SwarmFarm has grown to be a world leading agricultural robotics company, and one of the first to deliver commercial robots to farmers. To date, SwarmFarm has delivered 65 robots into commercial farming operations across Australia and autonomously farmed over 2 million acres of cropping land.

Joining me today is Ben Brayford. Ben is an executive director robotic technology entrepreneur with a blend of energy, skills and experience to translate innovative technologies to commercial success. Ben has unique experiences as a founder commercializing robotics in the high-value resources sector. He specializes in robotic product development, finding product market fit in early-stage startup and setting businesses up for scaling in the global mining and energy resources sectors.

As the Founder of a disruptive robotics (ROV) services company, Ben led a skilled team to become global leaders in the subsea oil and gas sector, earning them five prestigious industry awards, including Company of the Year 2020 and Exporter of the Year 2022.

Currently serving as CEO of Solar Energy Robotics (SER), Ben drives the design and manufacturing of cutting-edge robotic technologies for cleaning solar PV arrays in the mining sector. His strategic vision includes expanding into new overseas markets and the emerging solar industry.”

Joining me today is Louisa de Vries. Louisa is a Consulting Manager at Bosch Australia Manufacturing Solutions.

Louisa is a mechanical engineer with a passion for manufacturing, technology and innovation. After 18 years at Holden, Louisa moved on to managing electric bus research projects and building a predictive maintenance analytics platform for trains. Louisa was introduced to Bosch while sourcing test equipment for an emergency invasive ventilator project, which played a key role in re-invigorating local manufacturing during the pandemic. Louisa is now the manager of a consulting team at Bosch Australia Manufacturing Solutions, focusing on supporting manufacturers on their pathway of commercialisation, manufacturing strategy, process optimization or expansion.