Some of the youngest competitors at the 8th annual Robot Olympics, which attracted kids from 15 countries to the Gold Coast in December.

Credit: Jeni Bone

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The hall is abuzz with whirring and commotion, key-tapping on laptops and voices competing for air with microphone instructions in English, Korean and Japanese. It's the 8th annual International Robot Olympics, held this year at the Southport School, in the heart of Australia's east coast beach playground, the Gold Coast, from 7 to 10 December and attended by school children and academics from around the world.

It's fun and it's frenetic. The competition is ferocious, and it's not solely about robots as toys. "Children are our future and we need to start them early with the logic, the principles and programming associated with robots so that their interest in technology grows with them," explains Julia Chang, spokesperson for the Korean sponsor company, Kaimax. "While they have fun, they are learning, competing and improving their understanding of physics, pulleys, energy and electronics beyond the textbook."

While Australians budget for the electronic toys with an eye toward Christmas stockings, Japan and Korea, where the governments subsidise robotics for educational purposes in schools, take it far more seriously.
"In Korean schools, we recognise children who display a talent for robots from an early age and they are placed in specialist schools with a strong focus on science and maths," says Chang. "That way, we are investing in the future of many fields of industry and technology."

Jun Jo, from local Griffith University's School of Information and Communication technology, says the Australian Federal Government must invest more in robotics and fostering an understanding of the jobs that require them.

"Robotics today is a massive global industry, and one which has increasing job prospects for Australian students. Many experts believe that in a decade the robot industry will become bigger than the car industry. It is disappointing that funding in Australia is significantly smaller in terms of investment compared to other countries."

Over the two days of the Olympics, contestants vie for prizes in two categories - games and creativity. Games include obstacle races, dancing, soccer and basketball, and the creative category involves building a robot from scratch within a set time frame based around an environmental theme.

This is the second time Australia has hosted the International Robot Olympics (IROC), but among the sea of faces in the bleachers, at the tables and demonstrating their entries in the various categories, there are few Australians.

Peter Turner, managing director of the Newcastle, New South Wales technology company Tribotix and lecturer in Computer Engineering at the University of Newcastle, says there just isn't the support, interest or skill pool at our schools and institutions. The absence of local teams is just another symptom of the chronic skills shortage in technical, IT and engineering fields.

"People think robots are a thing of the future, but they are all around us now," says Turner. While the Japanese contingent is working on developing the humanoid team to 'man' an international Moon base scheduled for 2025, the rest of us on Earth are benefiting from robots in every day life: from the manufacturing processes that use robots, the breweries that use them to manipulate their bottles, construction, aircraft reconnaissance, nuclear power plants, surgery, physio and rehabilitation, security, mining, archaeology, space exploration, even search and rescue.

"After Hurricane Katrina, robots were sent in to structurally unsound areas. They detect heat, movement and carbon dioxide to see if anybody's trapped inside spaces it was just too dangerous to send people or dogs. There are snake-like robots that are used after earthquakes that can literally slide in among the rubble and locate people."