Author: Summer Sobbi

🤖💡 🏰 

Two robots, one historic courtyard, and a mission to map the future.  

On July 29, the ARIAM Hub Demonstrator Program Brought Boston Dynamics’ Spot and ACFR’s Groundhog together for a collaborative tech trial in the iconic USyd Quadrangle.  

📋 What We Set Out to Achieve 

The primary goal? Demonstrate multi-platform robotic coordination and imaging capability. The team focused on: 

• Practice dual platform operations, determine any unforeseen complexities and safety issues   

• Training operators with hands-on driving sessions 

• Test operations of Spot Payload, especially mobility and dynamics changes. Test stair climbing and descent   

• Collecting imaging data to reconstruct the Quad using Spot’s CAM/IR payload 

🧠 What’s Next
The data collected will be used to develop enhanced digital representations and inform future robotic demonstrations. The team also gained valuable insights into skill and tool gaps, paving the way for targeted training and resource planning. 

The ARIAM team continues to with collaborative trials that merge engineering, imaging, and community connection. 

From 1-4 July, the QUT Gardens Point Campus in Brisbane came alive with the second Australian School of Robotic Systems (AUSROS 2025). The school welcomed participants from top universities and industry partners across Australia for four days of immersive learning, collaboration, and technical exploration in the field of robotics. 

Designed to empower graduate students, early-career researchers, and professional engineers, the program offered a comprehensive overview of robotic systems. 

Program Highlights 

Foundational Lectures
Presented by leading academics and researchers, these sessions introduced core elements of robotic systems including: 

• Control & Estimation – Presented by Prof. Ian Manchester

• Planning & Reasoning – Presented by A/Prof. Jen Jen Chung, Prof. Hanna Kurniawati, and Dr Rahul Shome 

• Sensing & Perception – Presented by A/Prof. Thierry Peynot, Dr Donald Dansereau, and Prof. Will Browne

• Robotic Learning – Presented by Dr Feras Dayoub, and Dr Peyman Moghadam

The program was further complemented by systems and science deep dive talks that covered state-of-the-art domain of interest, drawing on the technical depth of specific topic 

Each day featured sessions that brought together experts from academia and industry to explore pressing questions in robotic systems, sparking lively debate and collaborative momentum across disciplines.  

A standout moment was the trip to CSIRO Robotics that included a Robotics tour and workshop, allowing attendees hands on learning.   

Thank you to all speakers, attendees, organisers, and partner institutions for making AuSRoS 2025 a success. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and we look forward to building on this momentum as we continue advancing the robotics community in Australia and beyond. 

In June, over 10,000 computer vision experts from around the world gathered in Nashville Tennessee for 2025 IEEE / CVF Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference (CVPR 2025). Representing QUT Centre for Robotics, ARIAM Research Hub, Australian Centre for Robotics, and Abyss Solutions Ltd, Chamuditha Jayanga presented his paper ‘Multi-View Pose-Agnostic Change Localization with Zero Labels’. Co-authored with Jason Lai, Donald Dansereau, Niko Sünderhauf, and senior lead Dimity Miller, the work introduces a powerful new method for detecting scene changes—without labels or fixed camera poses.  

Chamuditha and the team present a novel label-free, pose-agnostic method for detecting scene changes using multi-view 3D Gaussian Splatting, outperforming existing approaches and enabling accurate change localisation from as few as five images – even at unseen viewpoints – alongside releasing a new real-world benchmark dataset.  

Check out the paper here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2412.03911

The ARIAM Research Hub proudly hosted a workshop on 19th May at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2025, held in Atlanta, Georgia. Centred around Open Challenges in Robotics for Asset Inspection and Management (OCRAIM), the workshop brought together leading researchers, industry professionals, and innovators to address the pressing challenges in robotic inspection and asset management. 

As one of the world’s premier robotics conferences, ICRA 2025 provided an ideal platform for sharing insights and fostering collaboration. The ARIAM led workshop focused on the technical and operational hurdles faced by industry professionals and also highlighted cutting-edge research which is at the forefront of addressing these challenges.  

Attendees engaged in robust discussions and explored the latest advancements in this exciting field.

The ARIAM Research Hub hosted our Researcher Development Workshop on May 9th for the research cohort within ARIAM Research Hub and the Australian Centre for Robotics (ACFR). The event brough together experts from across Australia’s robotics and tech community to inspire and equip the next generation of academic researchers and industry leaders.

Co-organised by Donald Dansereau, Gideon Billings, and the ARIAM Management Team, the day featured two standout keynotes:

• Samson Lee (Visionary Machines) shared his entrepreneurial journey from PhD student to startup founder—complete with a 16-camera rigged family car.
• Dana Kulic (Monash University) delivered a keynote titled “A Serendipitous Sequence of Meeting Amazing People Who Let Me Hang Out With Them and Opened Doors I Never Knew Existed.”  Her global career journey highlighted the power of mentorship and the courage to seize unexpected opportunities. 

The day included four panel discussions and workshops including Understanding Research Impact, Post-PhD Pathways, Collaboration and Networking Workshop, and a strategic research development workshop. With insights from ARIAM academics as well as guests from Monash, UTS and industry leaders from amongst our partners and CSIRO. The day was a powerful reminder to never stop learning!