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.

“There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.”

Michelle Obama

In the first weekend of March, Aubot was an exhibitor at Scienceworks’ Robotica: Festival of Futurism event. The event showcased a number of companies and organisations who are driving significant innovations in Australia’s robotics industry. The festival was highly successful in attracting a large number of families and young people, with many taking our Teleport Dave for a test drive! As a team, it was greatly rewarding to witness so many children become enthusiastic about the robotics industry, it is our hope that these young minds become future innovators and robot makers!

On a cloudy Friday morning in February, Dave (a Teleport robot) and Ben (not a robot) rolled out of the Aubot office in Richmond, and made their way out away from downtown Melbourne to the Drum Theatre in the charming suburb of Dandenong.  It was here that Marita Cheng, the founder and CEO of Aubot was going to be giving a speech to a group of year twelve students.  However Marita was not going to be in the building, or even the country. Rather she was sitting in her office across the Pacific in San Francisco, enjoying a wonderfully chilly American Winter.  This is where Dave came to the rescue.

Being a Teleport, Dave went up on stage, and allowed Marita to have a presence there, under her own control, lending to the presentation a level of naturality and authenticity.  The gasps and laughter that came from the crowd when Marita turned the Teleport [Dave] around after her introduction was enough to show the level of excitement these students felt about a robot assisting in the presentation.

For the last part of 2018, we were invited by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, (or Austrade), to go to San Francisco and expand our business to the United States of America.

It has been an amazing experience, meeting other Australian companies who are at a similar growth stage and learning about how companies in the USA think about business.

We are grateful to the Austrade for the opportunity and are excited by our future USA plans. https://www.austrade.gov.au/landingpads/locations/san-francisco

On 18 October, the aubot team was one of 4 teams from the local community who was invited to the Governor’s House of Victoria to showcase our Teleport robots to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex!

We weren’t allowed to take photographs of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and we aren’t allowed to show the official photographs that were taken when they were speaking with us.

So here’s a photo we took before with Sarah and some aubot robot prototypes!

I wasn’t in Melbourne that day, so I appeared via Teleport robot!

It was a really fun day to show the Duke and Duchess of Sussex our robot accomplishments as well as new projects in the pipeline!

Teleport appeared in this video for the Choose Maths campaign, funded by the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) to encourage girls in Australia to “choose maths” in their final years of high school.

Find out more about AMSI and their Choose Maths campaign here!

Our team took a Teleport to Defense Science Technology’s (DST) Scindicate event for DST staff from all over the country to participate and enjoy the expo, even if they couldn’t physically be there themselves.  The robots were very popular and used by many members of DST over the two-day event.

Here’s aubot engineer Sarah with a Teleport at Scindicate.