The low-cost Robobilby kit robot was designed to encourage students to develop skills in designing, engineering, and programming hardware and software and to teach them that computer programming does not have to be a product purchased from large American corporations: it can be done by themselves, and thus create an Australian industry. This idea aims to debunk the notion that computer designers and programmers are akin to the monks of medieval times, the only literate people in society; it aims to ensure that computer literacy is not a language of codes available to only a select few, but a literacy that is widely accessible.

Robobilby was developed by John Billingsley, Professor of Robotics at the University of Southern Queensland. He began his career as a mathematician in Portsmouth in the UK. He developed auto pilots for the aeronautical industry and then studied control theory. He saw that robotics was a very interesting application of control theory. Professor Billingsley has developed many robots at the University of Southern Queensland and advanced Australia's standing in this area.

Robotics is a field of mechanical automation and computing that has fascinated scientists and the general public alike since the sixteenth century, when some clever automata were developed by Jacques de Vaucanson in France. It is an area of technology that has become as much a part of popular culture as it has of industry.


Damian McDonald
October 2007

Robobilby was designed and developed by Professor John Billingsley and his team at the University of Southern Queensland from commonly available parts with the aim of making it highly accessible to school students.

Robobilby was developed as an educational kit robot to be used in schools by students ten years old and over. Students assemble the robots and program them to negotiate a predetermined course. In the 1990s, Robobilby competitions were held in Queensland and students developed skills in designing and programming hardware and software.

This Robobilby was offered to the Museum by the University of Southern Queensland in 1999 for the 'Universal Machine' exhibition. Robobilby features in the exhibition (now named 'Cyberworlds').

Robot, Robobilby, metal / plastic / electronic components, designed and made at the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, 1995-1999

Robobilby has a plastic rectangular body made from a section of plumbing conduit. On each side are wheels powered by a stepping motor (salvaged from surplus 5 1/4 inch disc drives) situated inside the body. A circuit board sits on the top of the unit with a serial port connecting it to a PC and five ports for the motors and the sensory array. The front of the unit features two extensions and a cross bar on which the three sensors sit.

Designed: University of Southern Queensland; Toowoomba, Queensland; 1995 - 1999

Made: University of Southern Queensland; Toowoomba, Queensland; 1995 - 1999

2008/52/2

1995 - 1999

95 mm

250 mm