A new breed of industrial robots and a revolutionary set of new ICT systems could soon transform Australia’s manufacturing sector, leading to safer environments and more efficient factories, according CSIRO’s latest whitepaper.

Launched over the National Manufacturing Week last week, the whitepaper outlines the issues facing the nation’s manufacturing sector and presents a new category of technologies built to better encourage human-robot work practices.

The paper outlines how the current tools available for the manufacturing sector are designed for high volume mass-manufacturing, but the new era of economic drivers will require manufacturers to focus more on low-volume, highly customised and high value-add products.

A drive towards more ICT enabled advanced manufacturing was one of the key opportunities identified by the Prime Minister’s Manufacturing Taskforce in 2012 in its report Smarter Manufacturing for a Smarter Australia.

"Australian Manufacturing is shifting away from large-volume production to mass customisation, and companies are telling us they need more flexible systems to deliver these more customised products. This whitepaper seeks to highlight these trends and present solutions which will enable Australian industry to address these challenges," says co-author and CSIRO business development manager Dr Peter Kambouris.

"Industrial automation used in manufacturing today is limited, but developments in ICT and robotics present Australia with an opportunity to change the way we manufacture. CSIRO believes lightweight robotics and advanced ICT systems are one way of meeting this challenge," he adds.