CSIRO looking for a robot designer

The CSIRO and National Museum of Australia robot will take school children on guided tours of the museum

Stephanie McDonald (Computerworld)
16 July, 2012 16:44
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The CSIRO is turning to the public to design the body of its mobile telepresence museum robot.

Entrants to the ‘Body of the Bot (pdf)’ competition must provide a sketch of the robot’s body, according to specific requirements. For example, it must be suited to a museum environment but can be any shape and constructed from any material.

The body of the robot must not weigh more than 10kg and needs to be durable enough to withstand transport to Canberra.

Entries will be judged on cost, creativity, ingenuity and suitability to purpose and environment. Up to 10 entries will be chosen as finalists.

Once finalists have been announced, entrants will be sent a Bot skeleton to construct the robot’s body.

Entries must be received by 10 August this year, with a winner to be announced in October this year.

The winning robot body will be used in guided tours of the National Museum of Australia (NMA) to allow school students to virtually ‘visit’ museums on their computer, following the development of the robot by CSIRO and the NMA.

Computerworld Australia predicts designs for black-clad cowboys, futuristic police and soldiers will not be among the winning entries.

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