Brisbane residents poured into QUT's Gardens Point campus yesterday to play with, touch and be amazed and amused by robots.
The glimpse into society's robotic future included robots of all variety from the dancing child-like Naos to Australia's first trapeze-swinging robot and the jazzy marimba playing Shimon Robot to aquabots, pet bots, medical bots, fruit picking and AgBots.
Approximately 20,000 people attended QUT's Robotronica, a festival of robotics and interactive design.
Crowds were treated to a feast of robotic activity with kids pitting their skills against each other in games ranging from sumo wrestling to robotic ball and mini quadcopter obstacle courses.
Colour-blind New York Cyborg Neil Harbisson enthralled crowds explaining to them how he hears colour through an antennae implanted in his skull while Australian performing artist Stelarc illustrated his Ear on Arm project.
Tens of thousands will be able to remember and enjoy Robotronica virtually, with QUT giving away more than 8,000 sets of cardboard Global Goggles.
Members of the 501st Legion including Darth Vadar, storm troopers and R2D2 roamed the campus posing with visitors wanting the ultimate science fiction selfie.
The closing performance involving QUT's purpose-built performance robots, the Perff Bots, which strutted their stuff on the stage to the sweet sounds of performance orchestra Deepblue while circus performer Marianna Joslin and the trapeze bot hung and swung.
The Robotronica website has received an electronic workout with 37,000 visits and 166,000 pageviews since its launch in late July.
View how the day unfolded through our flickr gallery.
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Media contact: Rose Trapnell, QUT media team leader, 07 3138 2361 or 0407 585 901 rose.trapnell@qut.edu.au
