Brisbane hosts robot display

Of course, when the US market does open, it will be the biggest in the world. The FAA predicts that within five years, there will be over 7,500 drones in operation in the US, taking on tasks like inspecting and dusting crops, checking high-tension power lines and pipelines, providing morning traffic reports and checking for building code violations. Maybe they'll even deliver pizza.A robotic clone hosts a lecture at a Brisbane university for his master, who is more than 7000km away in Japan.

A band plays while flying robots light up the sky around them.This isn't the future. It's Robotronica - a futuristic event held at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane on Sunday.QUT creative director Jonathan Parsons says the event doesn't just showcase future possibilities, but highlights how advanced robotics presently is."We tend to use the term robots when it's something a bit alien or strange, but in the '50s dishwashers were robots, but we don't refer to them as that anymore," he told AAP."Now their'pletely part of the fabric of our society and one day, all these things will be too."

Swarm Farm Robotics Director Andrew Bate says his project is the future of agriculture.One his farm near Emerald in central Queensland, Mr Bates is developing small tractors that will operate unmanned with others in a swarm, to replace the bulky, expensive models currently used."We keep getting bigger and bigger, but now the focus is on being smaller and more efficient," Mr Bate said."It's better for the soil and it's far more cost effective."The star of the show was Geminoid, a robotic "clone" of his creator, Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro.Geminoid, who blinks and has other subconscious human traits, had his crowd entranced when he re-presented a lecture his creator did at QUT just days before.