Put your robotics skills in play

IT’S hard to get a job after university, and often even more so if you specialise in a small field such as robotics.

Yet there are plenty of opportunities to practise robotics if you know where to look. Here are four different types of robotics companies (with examples) so you can understand what jobs might be out there and how to find them.

Solutions provider

Robotics solutions providers are the consultants of the robotics space.

Companies such as Australian Droid & Robot and Universal Field Robotics will help get a robotics project off the ground.

The best thing about these companies is that they will have a very diverse set of clients: from small businesses to multinational corporations.

This means that you’re likely to get exposure to a broad range of robot solutions and problems.

General engineering consulting firms such as Worley, KPMG and Hatch are also in this category.

Although the general engineering companies won’t always do robotics projects, you can try to join a team that works exclusively on those problems. Search for ‘solutions provider’, or ‘robotics integrator’ to find companies in this category.

If you aren’t sure exactly what kind of robot you want to specialise in, these companies are a great starting point.

Research-driven innovator

These are the researchers of the robotics commercialisation space.

Typically working in cutting-edge fields that haven’t established a strong market, such as the space industry, these companies are often funded by government or defence contracts.

Examples include Titomic (space vehicle manufacturing) and ELO2 (developing a lunar rover). Working at a company like this will bring you rapidly to the cutting edge of a robotics niche. If that niche becomes mainstream, you will have skills that are extremely valuable. You can find them by searching for companies that have received government grant funding.

Choose these kinds of companies if you want to place a big bet on the future.

Robotics product-led

These companies are the pure startup plays of the robotics landscape, focused on their particular product and the specific market they serve.

Some great examples are Swarm Farm Robotics (robotics for broadacre agriculture), Advanced Navigation (underwater robotics for oil and gas) or Abyss (water surface-based robotic fixed-plant surveys).

These companies focus on building out and scaling their solutions for broad adoption. You can often find these companies on local startup community boards and listings.

If you are looking to understand how to build robots that are robust and scalable, then these are the companies to focus on.

Corporate innovation division

Big companies in Australia also experiment with robotics.

Major mining companies such as BHP, Rio Tinto, and Fortescue Metals Group have experimented, or continue to experiment, with robotics.

These companies are looking to avoid vendor lock-in and reduce costs in their supply chain. This means that they tend to focus on extremely specific use cases for their particular company.

They are unlikely to be willing to scale the solution out broadly as they are seeking to build an internal competitive technology advantage.

Working inside a corporate innovation division can be exciting, as you will learn how a successful business works while also practising robotics.

The big trade-off is that robotics will never be the core business.

This means that when times are tough, the innovation department is often the first to be shown the door.

To find a corporate innovation team, identify a big company you’d like to work with and look up their employees on LinkedIn.

Search for ‘innovation manager’ or ‘robotics lead’ and read their career profiles to see if that company does robotics as part of its innovation division.

Corporate innovation divisions are a great way to do robotics while getting exposure to another whole industry, such as mining or oil and gas.

The robotics industry in Australia is small but growing. Go get out there and help build it.

• John Vial has a PhD in robotics and has spent the past several years leading teams in major Perth businesses focused on AI and robotics