We have begun user testing our Jevaroo robot with people in our R&D office in Melbourne.  We’re thrilled to be getting user feedback on the intuitiveness of our robot controls from our end users in the office! Here’s a short video of Jevaroo in action!

Our founder Marita Cheng won the international Business Leader Award by LESA for being a leader with purpose. The full name of the award is: the Leadership Energy Summit Asia‘s (LESA) Iclif Leadership Energy Award’s (ILEA) Business Leader Award from the Asia School of Business, in collaboration with MIT Sloan Management – quite the mouthful!

We’re super proud of Marita being acknowledged for her work globally, and for her work in leading our team to do good! Thank you for the recognition, Iclif!

From February – October 2020, we participated in the Nexus Impact Accelerator Fellowship, which began at the Nexus Global conference in DC in February 2020 – our last in-person conference before the global COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.  At Nexus Global, we pitched our Jevaroo robotic arm on a movable platform.

During the Fellowship, our cohort met via Zoom every Monday morning for peer support, I gave a speech about robotics to the Nexus community, and I received mentorship from executive coaches a few times a month. It was very valuable to have a strong peer support group while the world became crazy and confusing with the pandemic.

We were meant to conclude our Fellowship by giving a speech onstage at the next Nexus USA Conference in August 2020. With the pandemic, that didn’t happen. Maybe we’ll present at the next Nexus in-person conference? Regardless, I’m looking forward to the next Nexus in-person conference and seeing everyone again!

Here is an interview we did with Nexus during the Fellowship. https://nexusglobal.org/2020/04/24/marita-cheng-founder-of-aubot/

Here is a first look at Jevaroo, the 8 degree-of-freedom robotic arm on a movable platform we’ve been working on. We’re super excited about this robot and its potential capabilities!

Al Jazeera English filmed a 25-minute documentary with Teleport, a Teleport customer, our new robot Jevaroo, and user interactions with Jevaroo. 

It is part of their 5-part “Women make science” series, where they profiled women from around the world. It was a wonderful opportunity to be involved in this series, capturing a moment in our story!

Aubot has been named one of “10 women-led businesses shaking up Australian tech”. Thank you TechLife Sydney for the inclusion!

You can read the full article here. https://techlifesydney.com/women-led-australia-tech-businesses/

Binary Shift: Regional Innovation & Startups Conference, was created to showcase regional entrepreneurs, help build community around innovation and technology in regional areas, and connect regional business owners to national and global thought leaders in innovation and entrepreneurship.  Growing regional tech, innovation and startup communities is vital to creating regional jobs.

Held over two days in Sale Victoria, the day was kicked off by our founder Marita Cheng, delivering an inspiring speech about our Aubot robots and increasing women’s participation in STEM.

This was followed by the opportunity for members of the public to maneuver Teleport around the room.  It was fun to engage people in regional communities around the possibilities of remote work via telepresence robot! Thank you for having us, Binary Shift! We enjoyed being part of your proud regional community!

As part of Melbourne Knowledge Week 2019, Aubot showcased Teleport at the Victorian AI and Robotics Showcase. This expo teaches how artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics impacts our lives through demonstrations of cutting-edge, innovative technologies being created around Melbourne. Some of the other organisations presenting were the University of Melbourne, inGeniousAI, the Biometric Mirror, Robogals, Deakin Genie, and ThingC.
 

At our booth, kids had the opportunity to drive around the Teleport and ask questions about robotics. We also talked about how a device like Teleport has many different use case settings such as office spaces, schools, hospitals, homes, and museums. We had a great time inspiring the future generation about the infinite possibilities in technology!

Aubot attended Tech Inclusion Melbourne’s 2nd annual event. Tech Inclusion aims to highlight diversity and inclusion in tech industries. This year’s theme was “Voices of Innovation” featuring diverse, underrepresented voices for keynotes, panel discussions, solo talks, and interactive sessions throughout the day.

We learned how diverse teams can improve productivity and how to be an ally to support underrepresented groups in the tech industry. We also showed off Teleport, which enables users to maintain an office presence from anywhere to adapt to illness, injury, travel, or ability. Many thanks to the Tech Inclusion staff for providing such an amazing learning opportunity for Aubot!

Last year, the Transport Accidents Commission (TAC) offered a grant to companies that could assist people with a disability in their everyday lives. Here at Aubot, we thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to allow for people with a disability to control our robots, regardless of their ability.  Over the past few months, the team at Aubot’s Melbourne office conducted trials, offering the opportunity for those both with and without disabilities to pilot the Teleport through a variety of control interface devices, such as chin control, joystick control, and head-tracking with a puff switch.  These devices would allow for those with limited mobility and dexterity, and those who would not be able to comfortably control the Teleport using the conventional keyboard controls, to use the Teleport to explore the world around them.

While many of the individuals that were part of the trials did not have a great deal of, or any, experience with all the interfaces we were testing, most of them enjoyed trying to figure out the controls and controlling the Teleport through them.  Across the 26 trials we conducted both in our office in Richmond, and around the Greater Melbourne and Geelong Area, we received some very good feedback on the ability to control the Teleport through this variety of control interfaces, leading us here at Aubot to be optimistic about the future aid that this technology could provide to the community of people with limited upper limb mobility.