From Robowars and a Robo-Panda, to surgical robots and interactive big screen coding for kids – this year’s free Robotronica event at QUT on Sunday, August 20, is a must for lovers of technology, robotics and AI.
Australia's largest one-day robotics festival will run from 9am to 4pm at QUT’s Gardens Point (city) campus at the end of George Street in the Brisbane CBD.
It's the third time QUT has staged the event, with the last Robotronica in 2015 drawing 15,000 people across the day.
The 2017 Robotronica highlights include:
- Australian Robowars Championship, featuring brutal battle bots created by robot builders across the country. The finals will be on Sunday at Robotronica at Gardens Theatre, with the heats on Saturday, Aug 19, also open to the public. Free tickets can be reserved here.
- Meet Pepper the social robot - presentations at 9am, 10am, 11am, 12noon, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm in the Science & Engineering Centre (P Block). No bookings required.
- Code-A-Bot is a super-sized coding game that will be free to play on the two-storey high screens at The Cube. It challenges kids and adults to recode recycling robots and make them more efficient.
- Electric Puppet gives families a chance to design their own 2D robot and animate them on the HiQ screens in the QUT Library. It's on all day and no bookings are needed.
- The Hospital of the Future (P Block, all day) gives visitors a glimpse into the future of medicine - from from surgical robots and robotic human simulators, to 3D printed body parts.
- The Robot Play Zone has lots of hands-on fun for ages 4 to 10 on Level 5 of P Block, between 10am and 3pm.
Tour a virtual QUT with cardboard VR headsets that you can keep! This 3D interactive experience is on all day outside D Block.
- Robo-Panda is just one of the works on display at the QUT Art Museum as part of the Why future still needs us: AI and humanity exhibition (ages 13+).
The Mako Robotic-arm Assisted Surgery display will show the future of the operating theatre. Head to Level 4 of the Science and Engineering Centre (P Block) any time between 9am and 4pm.
- Robot storytime will share the magic of storytime with Brisbane Libraries' NAO robots in Old Government House at 10am, 11am, 12noon, 1pm and 2pm.
- Hear Georgia Tech's Professor Ron Arkin give his keynote public lecture, Robots that Need to Mislead: Biologically-inspired Machine Deception, from 11.30am in P Block. Book here.
- QUT aerial robotics (drones) displays, on the hour from 9am to 4pm, in Room 134, O Block.
- Motorsports of the Future, including F1 simulator, on the Kidney Lawn all day.
The Redback Garrison 501st Legion will be on site with roaming Star Wars characters all day.
Artbots will use LEGO Robotics to collaborate with you to create your own artwork in the Registrar's Garden behind QUT Art Museum.
Plus lots more displays, activities, talks and things to play with! See www.robotronica.qut.edu.au
TRAFFIC ALERT: The Queen's Wharf construction will affect traffic and access to the CBD on Sunday, August 20. Gardens Point campus parking will be accessible but access to Queens Wharf Road and Gardens Point Road will be under traffic control. See the Robotronica site for more details.
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Media contacts:
- Rose Trapnell / Mechelle McMahon / Kate Haggman, QUT Media, media@qut.edu.au
- After hours/on the day, Rose Trapnell, 0407 585 901
