From University Start-Up to Global Exporter: LYRO Robotics’ Game-Changing Journey

It sounds simple. But as LYRO Robotics CEO Dr Nicole Robinson and Chief Roboticist Prof Peter Corke revealed at World Science Festival Brisbane, it’s one of the hardest problems in modern automation — and solving it could transform the way Australia feeds the world.

LYRO’s robots combine machine vision, AI decision-making, and precision grasping to handle something factories have never cracked: picking up fresh produce gently enough not to bruise it, quickly enough to matter, and reliably enough to scale. That’s the gap between a research paper and a revolution.

In this Game Changers conversation hosted at the State Library of Queensland, Nicole and Peter joined facilitator Prof Michael Milford (Director of the QUT Centre for Robotics) to unpack the full journey — from PhD lab to global exporter. They covered:

• Why picking up an object is genuinely one of the hardest things a robot can do (and why we’ve been underestimating it for decades)
• The entrepreneurial leap from deep tech research to commercial deployment — and what nobody tells you before day one
• How LYRO decides when to pivot and when to stay the course
• What Queensland’s robotics ecosystem looks like on a global scale (spoiler: it’s more impressive than most people realise)
• The future of humanoid robots — and why function will almost always beat form
• What a billion dollars would do for robotics, the environment, and aged care

Whether you’re curious about the science, inspired by the startup story, or just want to know why your robot vacuum still can’t find the corner — this one’s worth your time.

Watch the World Science Festival Brisbane, In Conversation event in the video player above.