When we say “small but terrible”, it is a clear-cut description of this small city-state in the part of Southeast Asia, Singapore. It has gained radical changes economically in the last decades.
Looking into the list of the most automated countries worldwide, it is never tagged behind. In the year 2020, it occupied the second spot, next to South Korea, and amazingly, it is still within the limelight this year. Singapore remarkably sits in the third spot next to Japan. Thanks to the robotics industry, which helps it to empower the pursuit of automation.
Like NCS, the digital technology service, many believe the robotics industry has a reason to stay and progress in Singapore. Let’s find out by understanding its core essence and see its impact on the lives of the citizens.
How Robots Affect Normal Daily Routines?
As part of the world’s industrialization, here are a few key points worth considering:
- What are robots for?
They are machines designed and produced to replicate human actions. Their main purpose is to tackle tasks that give threats to humanity, such as handling bombs and poisonous substances.
- What are their strengths?
They can carry heavy loads that human beings can barely do with much efficiency. In hospital operations and war engagements, robots help with issues on the precision of measurements and targeting.
- What are their limitations?
Even though they are the nearest replicas of human beings, they can’t form relationships and think on their own.
They can expand and improve the normal daily routines to a larger extent.
- Increase productivity level in various fields: healthcare, agriculture, finance, ecology, manufacturing, construction, and a lot more.
- Enhance quality control because of the high accuracy and automation of the processes.
- Boost the safety level in many areas of human endeavours.
- Businesses become highly competitive.
Robotics in Singapore: What You Need To Know
As a forward-thinking country, Singapore embraces the future prominence of robots in their daily lifestyles. It owns a robotic facility that displays the latest industrial robots. This is to materialize its vision: to become a knowledge-based, innovative, and smart nation.
“Singapore is determined to become a leader in automation and robotics, in conjunction with a drive for productivity and innovation. The Race robotics lab plays a key role in promoting awareness in this field,” said Colin Seah, founder of the Ministry of Design
Robots In Action
A number of robots have already been deployed in the surrounding areas of Singapore. A few of them are found in the following places:
- Restaurants & Cafes – collect dishes, deliver foods to the table, and pick up dirty trays.
- Hospitals & Hotels – dispense medicines and deliver linen, water, and foods.
- Economy – increase productivity and speed up economic development in different fields.
- Singapore’s road – self-driving cars are dispatched.
It is expected that this country will be the pioneering world market for this most innovative form of transportation.
- Investment – the Robo-advisors platform is gaining popularity in the financial markets for helping customers invest and manage their money digitally. It provides risk assessment, personalized advice, and solutions.
A few of the Robo-advisor platforms in Singapore are as follows:
- Endow us
- Moneyowl
- 3 DBS digiPortfolio
- Auto wealth
- StashAway
- Safe
- UOBAM Invest
- Etrade Robo
- FSM MAPS
- Krystal.AI
- Saxo Wealthcare
- OCBC Robo Invest
Will Robotics Industry in Singapore Have a Future?
The future of the robotics industry in Singapore is bright. Despite the rising doubts about its impact, it will be the mainstay of making fast-pacing industrialization. Singapore must get into the ground and play competitively in regional and global markets.
“In Asia, Singapore is regionally competitive. We have seen a very healthy start-up ecosystem with a lot of support from the government and the tertiary education system,” said Mr Su Jian Lye, principal analyst at consultancy firm ABI Research, speaking at a symposium at the Singapore International Robo Expo on 2 November 2018.
5 Areas To Watch Out
The robotics industry leads value creation at different levels. It includes manufacturing robots that could be transported globally, especially to ASEAN countries.
Strategic initiatives. The Singaporean government, such as NRF, will be a vital instrument for developing policies and plans for research, innovation, building enterprise technology, and funding. Its R &D capabilities must be nurtured and strengthened to attract talents. It can include foreign researchers and scientists. With all of these in place, Robotics in Singapore will have a promising future as follows:
Singapore’s workforce was populated heavily by immigrants. It dropped during the pandemic, and the robotics industry filled in the gap. For example, Singapore trialled Boston Dynamics’ four-legged robot, ‘Spot,” to promote safe social distancing. It broadcasted the message to visitors enforcing the observance of social distancing health protocol.
Two years after, this robot worked in the construction industry. It examines segments of mud and gravel, laser filter structures worked at worksites, and sends out the outcome reports over 5G to Gammon’s control space for checks.
2. Increase Production in Singapore
Before world industrialization, Singapore was already at the centre of the industrialization scene. With the rise of its robotics industry, it occupies a high-ranking position globally and is one of the smartest nations nowadays. It has become one of the logistics hubs of the world.
Digital Industry Singapore (DISG) Office aims to create 10,000 new jobs in engineering, software development, and automation.
3. Facilitate and Advance the Process of Industrialization
Singapore will push hard on automation. It will maximize the robotics industry because it changes the features of industrialization and facets of people’s lives such as consumerism, workplace, and businesses at a greater level.
In an attempt to move up on a larger scale, Digital Industry Singapore (DISG) Office will foster training on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data science, and networking engineering. It will also push more on the use of digital technology to strengthen its business communities.
4. Increase Singapore’s Global Competitiveness
The robotics industry will continue to grow with competitiveness. Along with the country’s diverse range of industries, it can be a vital resource for robotics and AI innovation. The forecast shows that it will manufacture 20 million robots by 2030. The impact will be far-reaching that International corporations might be looking forward to taking part in this country’s labour market efficiency and productivity.
5. Strengthen Hybrid Workforce
The fears of massive job loss have mellowed down and been replaced by decent acceptance of the vision of this country. Employees see that robots exist to increase their productivity and not to take away their jobs.
Workers are willing to cooperate with the demands on how to deliver high-level service using the right tools. Investing skills in digital by exposing themselves to the use of new technology is prioritized.
Takeaways:
- Singapore is a small city-state in Southeast Asia with an evident high economic development rate.
- The robotics industry is gaining popularity worldwide, and Singapore has proven its ability to compete globally.
- Many people believe in robots’ positive impact on their lives, while others have doubts driven by fears of massive job loss.
- Robots worked real-time human tasks during the drop in the workforce caused by COVID-19 in Singapore.
Conclusion
This challenging gap between the nation’s vision and reality will determine the final future of robotics in Singapore. A glimpse of hope, however, is experienced in many ways. The robotics industry helps to propel the country’s advancement in the economy, making it competitive globally. It’s just that the question of making it boom to the full extent needs in-depth focus and solutions.
