Politicians gear up for robotic revolution
Australian high school student Oliver Nicholls won a prestigious international award in May for designing a robotic high-rise window cleaner.
Now the federal government is holding him up as an exemplar of Australia's future in robotics as it launched a roadmap for the industry in Canberra on Monday.
"With students like Oliver, I think all of us can be very confident that the future of robotics in Australia is particularly bright," Liberal senator Jane Hume said.
The roadmap, launched in collaboration with the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision, tracks a pathway for its envisioned future of Australian robotics.
Labor senator Kim Carr cited reports from the International Federation of Robotics finding that robotics would lead to job reallocation, not destruction.
"The choice is not whether or not to accept or reject robotic systems, but how we use them," he said.
"Robots will perform the routine or dangerous tasks ... While raising the demand for higher skilled forms of human labour."
The roadmap report makes a number of recommendations as a guide to how Australia should harness the benefits of the robotic economy.
Chief among these is the need to develop new high-tech firms and a vibrant robotics industry in Australia to maintain standards of living.
A national robotics strategy should be developed, dealing with research, skills training and legal issues.
