Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Dr Nicole Robinson is a Research Fellow at Monash University with a cross appointment between the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences. She is affiliated with the Department of Electrical & Computer Systems Engineering, Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, and the School of Psychological Sciences. She is also an Adjunct Lecturer with Queensland University of Technology Centre for Robotics.
Research: She has created and built up an interdisciplinary research roup that specialises across both scientific methods and novel engineering. Her research theme is to evaluate and improve the quality and success of human-robot teamwork. This work involves theoretical and applied human-robot interaction work in domestic and field settings, including for mobile, manipulator, mobile manipulator, humanoid and social robots.
Prior to Monash, she was a Research Fellow with the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision on Humanoid Robotics on a $1.5 million R&D project with the Queensland Government. In less than 2 years, she was promoted to become a Chief Investigator (CI) and Program Leader of Human Interaction in the QUT Robotics Centre.
Funding: Throughout her career, she has been a Chief Investigator or Lead Applicant for more than $7.4 million in awarded funds from competitive grants, industry partnerships, and student scholarships.
Teaching: She has led and been involved in the design and implementation of university-level courses. She has been an invited guest lecture to talk on the topics of behavioural science, technology, engineering, entrepreneurship, and human-robot teams. She has also taught 1st to 3rd year level course content to both small-room tutorials and large-scale lecture halls (15 though to 500 students per class).
Public Outreach: She is a strong advocate for public outreach and promoting STEM careers for women. She has a media reach of 40+ million to date across live television, radio, print articles and world-renowned festival stages:
- Tedx, International Business Times, MIT Technology Review, Gizmodo, and the World Science Festival. She has also hosted a postcast on artificial intelligence and robotics available on iTunes and Spotify.
Start-up: She is a Co-Founder and Executive Director of LYRO Robotics Pty Ltd, a deep-tech robotics company that builds and deploys intelligent pick and pack robots for order fufillment using state-of-the-art computer vision, deep learning and robotic systems. LYRO has successfully commercialised robotics technology in Australia, creating direct benefit and value to the agriculture and warehousing industries.
- In 2020, LYRO Robotics won 1st place in the Unicorn Cup, the worlds largest start-up pitch competition against 2,000 companies from 125 cities.
- LYRO Robotics was also selected as one of 10 companies at the Extreme Tech Challenge for Australia, which was a sub-division of the worlds largest startup competition.
- LYRO has been supported by venture capital from both national and international investors to executive the vision to build and deploy 100,000 robots by the end of the decade.
Memberships: She is also a Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Australian Psychological Society, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
External positions
Director and Board Member, LYRO Robotics Pty Ltd
Adjunct Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
Research area keywords
- Robotics
- Human-Robot Interaction
- Human-Robot Teamwork
- Explainable AI
- Behavioral/Experimental Psychology
- Psychology
- Robot Learning
- Robot Ethics
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Human Centered AI
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 1 Active
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ARC Training Centre for Optimal Ageing
Lim, Y. Y., Kulic, D., Grundy, J., Batstone, J., Olivier, P., Wilson Rajaratnam, S., Cornish, K., Anderson, C., Klein, B., Browning, C., Pase, M., Abdi, E., Robinson, N., McNaney, R., Srikanth, V., Hill, K., Flynn, D., Callisaya, M., Brusco, N., Carreno-Medrano, P., Cronin, J., Fripp, J., Kothari, N., Toms, M., Browne, E., Neilson, P., Orelowitz, J., Udagedara, I. B., De Chaumont Rambert, C., Haddock, R., Pitt, A., Pearman, A., Lethlean, G., Skye, S., Ong, A. & Cai, J.
Australian Research Council (ARC), Readiness Pty Ltd
25/05/23 → 25/05/28
Project: Research
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A review of evaluation practices of gesture generation in embodied conversational agents
Wolfert, P., Robinson, N. & Belpaeme, T., Jun 2022, In: IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems. 52, 3, p. 379-389 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
10 Citations (Scopus) -
Psychosocial health interventions by social robots: systematic review of randomized controlled trials
Robinson, N. L., Cottier, T. V. & Kavanagh, D. J., May 2019, In: Journal of Medical Internet Research. 21, 5, 20 p., e13203.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review Article › Other › peer-review
Open AccessFile58 Citations (Scopus) -
Measures of incentives and confidence in using a social robot
Robinson, N. L., Connolly, J., Johnson, G. M., Kim, Y., Hides, L. & Kavanagh, D. J., 22 Aug 2018, In: Science Robotics. 3, 21, 2 p., eaat6963.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Other › peer-review
13 Citations (Scopus) -
Robotic vision for human-robot interaction and collaboration: a survey and systematic review
Robinson, N., Tidd, B., Campbell, D., Kulić, D. & Corke, P., Mar 2023, In: ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction. 12, 1, 66 p., 12.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access4 Citations (Scopus) -
Assessing evolutionary terrain generation methods for curriculum reinforcement learning
Howard, D., Munn, H., Dolcetti, D., Kannemeyer, J. & Robinson, N., Jul 2022, Proceedings of the 2022 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference. Fieldsend, J. (ed.). New York NY USA: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), p. 377-384 8 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review
1 Citation (Scopus)
Prizes
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Australian Centre for Robotic Vision - Best Team Award (Humanoid Robotics Group) 2018
Robinson, Nicole (Recipient), 1 Sept 2018
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Australian Centre for Robotic Vision - Contribution to Public Debate Award 2019
Robinson, Nicole (Recipient), 1 Sept 2019
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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TEDxQUT 2018 Speaker
Nicole Robinson (Contributor)
15 Sept 2018Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public outreach
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World Science Festival Presenter
Nicole Robinson (Contributor)
16 Mar 2018Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public outreach
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Pint of Science! Brisbane Presenter
Nicole Robinson (Contributor)
15 May 2018Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public outreach
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Guest Speaker at the Women in Young Women Leaders in AI Camp
Nicole Robinson (Contributor)
12 Apr 2019Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public outreach
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Robotronica Festival Presenter
Nicole Robinson (Contributor)
20 Aug 2017Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public outreach
Press/Media
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ABC Radio (Live) - Brisbane Drive with Steve Austin
14/06/19
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Profile/Interview
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ABC Radio (Live) - Sydney Drive with Josh Szeps
6/06/19
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Profile/Interview
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TODAY Show - The Droid Will See You Now
8/08/19
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Profile/Interview
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