UAP using 'robot with eyes' to create urban art

Queensland’s Urban Art Projects (UAP) is using innovative robotics technology to help transform the work of influential artists into gigantic, bespoke urban artworks.

UAP developed the $8 million Craftsman robot in partnership with Queensland University of Technology (QUT) RMIT University and the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre.

The ‘robot with eyes’ is capable of helping produce large-scale art pieces that had previously been impossible to produce economically.

Using the robot, UAP has successfully produced projects including the Hudson Yards (New York), Four Seasons (Guangzhou) and Boy Walking by Ronnie Van Hout (Auckland).

The company’s global business revenue has grown by 30% and UAP has been able to significantly reduce the need to import bespoke crafted segments from China, reducing its import bill for Chinese imports from $6.71 million in 2017 to under $2.5 million today.

Meanwhile, UAP has grown its Australian workforce headcount from 82 employees — with 20 on the workshop floor — in 2017 to 125 employees, with 57 in the workshop.

UAP is also exploring industry 4.0 opportunities including VR for pattern making in virtual space and augmented reality for the manufacturing process.

UAP Managing Director Matthew Tobin said the outcomes from the adoption of design robotics “have fundamentally changed the way we think about manufacturing and will continue to influence our digital transformation in the years to come”.