OP ED

Within just a few short years, robots are expected to begin appearing in many areas of everyday life in Singapore, whether patrolling our shopping malls or MRT stations, delivering parcels to our front door, or sweeping up in our workplaces. Singapore, along with South Korea, is already a world leader in industrial robot density; it will not be too long before we also start seeing personal robots in our homes, offices and leisure spaces as well.

Indeed, the Singapore government has earmarked robotics as an area for attention. Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Koh Poh Koon, has gone on record as affirming that the government will continue to support the development and deployment of robotics solutions across different industries to enhance productivity and remain competitive.

The global robotics market is booming. The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) and Boston Consulting Group both project that robotics sales will climb sharply to US$67 billion by 2025—Asia being by far and away the largest buyer of any other region. Out of all global markets, China is home to the largest and fastest-growing robotics market on earth. Many of the personal robots that begin appearing in Singapore are therefore expected to come from mainland China.

China began its historic economic ascent by taking advantage of cheap mass labour. But that was all in the past; nowadays China is investing heavily to exchange low-grade factory workers for high-tech robots. Ambitious Chinese government strategies, such as the Made in China 2025 plan, are fuelling R&D into AI technologies. Chinese investments now rival those of Silicon Valley robotics start-ups. For example, China’s investment in smart manufacturing in 2018 increased 46% on the year to 69.6 billion yuan ($10.1 billion), according to Beijing-based Marketing Intelligence Resource.

According to the International Federation of Robots, China is projected to have 40% of total worldwide robotic sales by 2019, which represents an increase from 27% percent just four years ago. China is currently the largest shareholder of the global robotics market, estimated at a net value of $30 billion. The country is currently ranked No.1 in sales of industrial robots, with South Korea and Japan being ranked second and third, respectively (the U.S. is ranked fourth).

One of China’s major advantages lies in government support, specifically the Made in China 2025 plan. China’s commitment to ongoing innovation means that it is currently bringing its robotics products up to meet international standards. It is predicted that China will meet and subsequently exceed these standards within a few years. Meanwhile, the country is also expanding its international distribution channels to meet expected growing demand. Beijing’s ambitious plans for robotics seeks to break China’s reliance on expensive imported robotics technology.

Meanwhile, in Singapore, although our robotics R&D community is world class and our laboratories produce innovative robotics, the pace of technology transfer from the laboratory to commercial marketplaces remains slow according to Asian Robotics Review. If Singapore is to become recognised as a major developer of robotics technology, through such centres of excellence as the Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD), much still remains to be done. It is therefore more feasible for Singapore to look outward to growth markets like China for “off the shelf” robotics products and technology.

In Singapore there are various obvious applications for robotics technology. Security is definitely one area where Singapore has made a commitment to investing in robotics solutions. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has already showcased security robots designed to patrol SMRT stations. Robotic traffic bots have also now been installed at Changi Airport.

Unlike humans, robots never lapse in their vigilance so this is a sensible area where Singapore can take advantage of public robotics applications. MI Robotics’ own concierge robot was meanwhile given a month-long trial in Cluny Court shopping centre as a security robot.

MI Robotic is also looking at servicing the growing trend for robots to add to people’s general quality of life in Singapore. This encompasses the entire period from the cradle to the grave. Two specific scenarios of how robots might be adopted locally were tabled this year at the NCSS Social Service Summit. MI Robotics’ robot “Snow” was suggested for placement in local pre-schools, for instance.

This cute China-designed-and-built robot was designed to encourage healthy social interaction between robots and human pre-schoolers. Snow is fully bilingual in English and Chinese and children are encouraged to speak and interact freely with the robot, which is designed to resemble a cartoon character. It is able to take children’s temperatures and can even mark attendance using facial recognition technology. Snow also integrates educational apps (e.g. counting, phonics, etc.) which help children learn whilst having fun.

Although there is some apprehension about robots taking human jobs away, humans should not be afraid of robots replacing them. The fact is that, for a variety of societal and economic reasons, there exists a global worker shortage in certain sectors. Personal robots do not steal jobs from humans; instead they bolster existing manpower shortages. 

In addition to alleviating manpower scarcities, the automation of various functions previously performed by human beings allows for the upgrading of those same human workers to more rewarding supervisory work.

Robots which resemble humans can help human beings to accept robots in everyday life more readily. However, in our view, the so-called “human-ness” qualities of personal or service robots should not detract from the simple ability of a robot to perform a given set of tasks. This is where making a robot “too human” may be unnecessary cost and mission wise.

MI Robotic, for example, has human-looking robots but we also have a simple robotic mobile trolley for food delivery. Because we do not feel that customers necessarily want or need a robotic trolley which sings or dances!

Unquestionably though, robots will become increasingly commonplace in all our homes. This will happen, we believe, within a very short period of time because robotics technology is increasing at an exponential rate. For example, there will soon be sophisticated delivery robots on our streets.

One US company, Nuro (designed by Google engineers), will soon deliver fresh groceries as well as hot food. Nuro is already carrying out deliveries in parts of Phoenix, Arizona. MI Robotics’ own food delivery robot can work autonomously in canteens and restaurants and other environments such as elderly homes.

Humans will soon work more collaboratively alongside robots too. Amazon’s U.S. warehouse robots bring items to human workers for packaging. The company thereby saves large annual costs on heating the areas where robots work exclusively on such logistical tasks. In Singapore the self-storage brand Store-friendly utilises similar logistical robots to fetch and carry storage units to customers.

Developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) will mean that robots will soon rely less on the Cloud and more on their own on-board intelligence aptitude and ability. MI Robotic works with AI software as well as the China-made robotics hardware, to plan all kinds of customer applications.

Open Standards for robotics will also soon emerge, the same as for computing. Industry watchers can expect to see a consolidation of the standardization required for AI enabled robots to achieve mass market penetration. Regulators will play a part as frameworks are put in place to govern how personal data may be collected and used by autonomous machines such as, for example, self-driving cars.

MI Robotics’ bespoke applied systems can involve such technologies as AI textual and linguistic assessment, AI virtual assistance, image processing and facial recognition, chat bots and AI support desk with integrated machine learning, web development and integration, and mobile app development for on-board robotic applications. We believe that the exciting future of robotics lies with Chinas’.