Collaboration, user involvement and community engagement are key components of ARCAA’s mission. As one of the co-organisers of the UAV Challenge competition, ARCAA invests significant resources into promoting the application of UAV's for humanitarian purposes, promoting the STEM agenda in secondary schools, and raising community awareness through media releases and print/radio/television interviews.

Specific examples include:

• UAV Challenge - 2014 will be remembered as the year that the UAV Challenge was finally won! The UAV Challenge Outback Rescue is a search and rescue competition that invites teams from around the world to develop and demonstrate unmanned aerial vehicles that can rescue a lost bushwalker.
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  The event was created in response to an international workshop in 2005, which was organised by the newly formed ARCAA. Delegates at the workshop identified a number of impediments to the development of a commercial UAV industry. Issues raised included the difficulty in obtaining insurance for unmanned aircraft operations and a lack of understanding in the area of UAV safety and how unmanned aircraft could operate in civilian airspace. There was also a feeling that the public had a generally negative perception of UAVs as military-only weapons, and that there was a lack of young professionals undertaking university-level education in related engineering disciplines. The UAV Challenge was created to try and address some of these issues. It consists of a Search and Rescue competition open to all from around the world, and the Airborne Delivery Challenge, a competition open to high-school aged competitors.
• Power of Engineering - The PoE vision is to inspire young people, particularly females and regional students, to consider a diverse and creative career in engineering and to transform the community perceptions of the profession. 
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  To achieve this vision they work in partnership with local communities, universities, industry and professional bodies across Australia to deliver a sustainable program of events targeting year nine and ten students (before they make senior subject selections). ARCAA actively assists this program through hosting facility tours where students learn about how we are making a positive difference through our research.
• VC STEM Camp - QUT's Vice-Chancellor's science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) camp, provides high-achieving Year 11 students with an exciting opportunity to attend an interactive 5 day camp, and engage in solving some of the major challenges facing our society and planet today.
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  Students take advantage of QUT's unique learning environment and have an opportunity to experience ground-breaking research as it happens, inside QUT's world-class research facilities.
• Robotronica - on August 18, 2013 the Austrian based ARS Electronica Futurelab Spaxels took to the skies above Brisbane. The flights were part of the closing finale performance for the inaugural QUT Robotronica Event.
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  30 drones were intricately manoeuvered behind the framing of the new Science & Engineering Centre. The Spaxels/ Robotronica flight was almost 12 months in the planning. It was initially suggested that it would be impossible due to strict UAV laws in Australia, however due to the generous work and support from the Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation (ARCAA) and the professional assistance from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), approval was eventually given for the event to go ahead.