At the Robotics Australia Group Annual General Meeting held on 25 September 2025, Chair Dr. Sue Keay presented her annual report, outlining the organisation’s achievements, ongoing initiatives, and strategic priorities. The report reflected another year of strong growth and engagement under the leadership of CEO and Executive Director Dr. Nicci Rossouw, as Robotics Australia Group continues to advance its mission as the peak body representing the robotics industry in Australia.
Robotics Australia Group continues to grow under the leadership of CEO (and Executive Director) Nicci Rossouw. I thank Nicci for her continued excellent work. As can be seen in the CEO report, engagement with Robotics Australia Group continues to increase as we continue to explore ways to add value for members and to pursue our goals as the peak body representing the robotics industry in Australia. Highlights for the last year include the release of the third edition of the Robotics Roadmap and the launch of the inaugural Awards for Excellence in Robotics. We continue to advocate on behalf of members, regularly engaging with monthly meetings with the Department of Industry’s Robotics Strategy team. We have also made submissions to relevant government enquiries on behalf of the robotics industry and, through our efforts have ensured that robotics will be considered in the soon to be released AI Capability plan, recognised as “physical AI”. As a member of the original advisory committee on the National Robotics Strategy, I have reformed the committee to brief the new Minister fo Industry, Tim Ayres and additionally provided briefings on some of the challenges accessing the National Reconstruction Fund experienced by our members, as well as the loss of many Australian tech companies via acquisition and opportunities for robotics in solving the housing crisis.
The development of a sustainable business model for Robotics Australia Group continues to be a priority for the Board. Our current strategy is to continue to draw down our funds and provide member services, while experimenting with activities that can yield returns beyond memberships. We seek to maintain and build on our positive cash flow to a revenue base that can support a small number of staff to service our membership and sponsorship commitments while supporting some state-based volunteer-run activities. Further work is required to consider how this can be achieved.
It is useful to reflect on the reasons why we formed Robotics Australia Group in May 2020. “To facilitate the growth of a sustainable and internationally competitive national robotics industry”. Some of the key issues we formed to address included:
- Visibility and brand issues --- robots ≠ job loss
- Capability and growth of a robotics industry for Australia
- Creation of connections to grow our robotics network
- Vibrant funding models to support growth and start-ups
To this end, our focus as articulated this time last year has not changed, we will know that we have met with success in helping to grow Australia’s commercial robotics industry when we see:
- More venture capital investment
- More people working in robotics
- More companies exporting and scaling
With continued commitment, we can go a long way to achieving our goals, and seeing the development of a sustainable robotics industry within a thriving robotics ecosystem in Australia.
Dr. Sue Keay
Chair
23 September 2025
