CSIRO's Data61 robotics work is incredibly diverse - the family of robotic creations are solutions aimed at a wide variety of challenge. Our robots have legs, wheels, cameras, sensors, fins, blades and magnets. They sense the world, navigate it autonomously, and they traverse the places too dangerous and dirty for human work.
Our world leading robotics research group has worked with industries such as aerospace, manufacturing, mining, oil and gas, biosecurity, and others. Our partners include: DARPA, Rockwell Collins, Boeing, Woodside, QUT, and many other government, universities and enterprises.
Meet our robot family below, and read more about Data61's robotics team.
Machines that see - Sensing and mapping the world
We take the sensory input of environmental information for granted - Data61’s robotic and autonomous devices must feature these skills from scratch.
Hovermap and Zebedee
Hovermap is a 3D mapping system that uses LIDAR (light detection and ranging) technology, combined with Data61’s proprietary Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) solution. Hovermap works in conjunction with a UAV (uncrewed autonomous vehicle), and can map both indoor and outdoor locations without relying on GPS. SLAM is also used in Zebedee, a hand-held version of the same mapping system.
Zebedee, our high-accuracy 3D laser mapping technology, was commercialised and is already being used around the world by 25 multinational organisations. It was recently trialled by the International Atomic Energy Agency in nuclear safeguards inspections.
Camazotz
Location sensing devices have been deployed in our Camazotz system - named after a Mayan bat god, Camazotz is a small, portable device that is used to monitor flying foxes across Australia, helping ecologists understand and predict the spread of disease. The Wireless Ad hoc System for Positioning (WASP) uses similar tags to track vehicles and mine workers relative to reference nodes - assisting with safety and boosting productivity.
Equal footing - legged robots traversing hazards
Ensuring robots can operate safely, securely and efficiently in hazardous and rapidly changing environments is a challenge, with several organisations around the world dedicated time and effort to developing robotic systems that can deftly navigate through these environments.
Data61’s legged robots are helping industries address these challenges.
Gizmo
Gizmo showing off some moves
Gizmo is Data61's newest bot - a small, smooth hexapod designed for versatility and small spaces. One of the motivating application for this robot is to inspect and map ceiling cavity and underfloor type confined spaces.
Zee
Zee is a prototype hexapod robot. ©CSIRO, Karl Schwerdtfeger
Zee is a prototype hexapod robot equipped with a streaming camera sensor and a real-time 3D scanning LIDAR.
Weaver
Ain't no mountain high enough for these legged robots. ©CSIRO, Navinda Kottege
Ain't no mountain high enough for these legged robots. ©CSIRO, Navinda Kottege
Zee’s big sister, Weaver, features five joints per leg and 30 degrees of freedom. Weaver can self-stabilise through ‘exteroceptive’ sensing - enabling the robot to walk up gradients of 30°, and remain stable on inclines up to 50°.
MaX
The Multi-legged Autonomous explorer demonstrating movement © CSIRO
The Multi-legged Autonomous explorer demonstrating movement © CSIRO
MaX (Multi-legged autonomous explorer) is even bigger - 2.25m tall when standing up straight. But MaX only weighs 60kg; around 5 to 20 times lighter than comparable robots. MaX is a research vehicle designed to help our scientists understand how to traverse and explore challenging indoor and outdoor environments.
Magnapod
©karl schwerdtfeger photographer holds copyright over all images
Magnapods are Data61’s wall-climbing, electro-magnetic inspection robots, useful in confined space inspection tasks and capable of carrying a 10 kilogram sensor payload.
Read more about the scientific goals of our legged robot research program.
Autonomous vehicles
Creating systems that can navigate and respond without human intervention is a key component in removing the human element from tasks that are dangerous or poorly suited for human control. We’ve developed several ground vehicles normally used in industrial environments that can operate without human intervention, including the Gator, the load haul dump vehicle and the 20 tonne hot metal carrier.
The Gator system demonstrating autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance. © CSIRO AutonomousSystemsLab
The Gator system demonstrating autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance. © CSIRO AutonomousSystemsLab
Our Science Rover enabled the complicated process of satellite calibration - the autonomous vehicle collects measurements at the same time an Earth observation satellite passes overhead - the two datasets are compared, and the satellite is calibrated. Our underwater autonomous vehicle, Starbug, uses underwater sensor networks to locate itself (GPS signals cannot be used underwater), enabling smart underwater data collection for the protecting and tracking of ecosystems.