Singapore is obsessed with getting robots to serve you. Here's where you can find them.
05.09.2023 - 10:19
/ insider.com
Robocops, robo-cleaners, robo-waiters, and robo-dogs — Singapore seems to want it all.
The city-state, home to 6 million people, even had robots nagging people to don masks and avoid crowding during the pandemic.
In the last four years, Singapore's government has showcased more than a dozen high-profile trials deploying robots in the country's airport, malls, parks, and worksites.
Many of these ventures are still in the early stages, though some have become fixtures in popular areas around the city.
Here are five ways Singapore is trying to use its brand new bots, and where you can find them.
Singapore's police started deploying patrol robots at Changi Airport airport in April. Each bot is equipped with speakers, an LCD screen, sirens, and blinkers to communicate with people.
A camera on the bot livestreams a feed directly to a police control room, according to authorities.
There's also a small, silver button on the robot that lets people connect directly to an officer. "More robots will be progressively deployed across Singapore," local police said in a press release.
Authorities are also trialing a four-legged robot called Rover-X, which is supposed to help officers detect poisonous chemicals in situations like search-and-rescue operations.
Robotics company Weston Robot introduced its auto sweeper in Gardens by the Bay, a tourist attraction in Singapore's downtown, in a video in August.
The outdoor cleaning bot can sweep up debris like dry leaves and ply routes on its own, though it's yet to see a mass rollout in the country.
Weston Robot also designs automatic lawnmowers, which it said can cut grass on hills. Both robots were debuted by NParks, the authority in charge of Singapore's parks, in May.
Bot developers are also trialing cleaning drones that can hose down structures like Gardens by the Bay's Supertrees, local outlet The Straits Times reported in February.
In 2020, one shopping mall started trialing a $50,000 robot that wanders its premises and flashes ultraviolet lights, presumably to kill off COVID-19.
As Singapore enacted lockdown-like conditions in the early pandemic months of 2020, the country allowed people to leave their homes for exercise.
Runners and cyclists flooded the country's parks, prompting the appearance of a Boston Dynamics dog robot and a mini buggy roaming jogging routes and blaring messages for people to stay a safe distance from each other.
The robot dog, dubbed Spot, was later deployed in 2021 to construction sites to help supervisors check if a structure is built according to the right specifications.
Several hotels in Singapore have started featuring robot waiters in their marketing to attract holiday-goers, following the widespread use of such bots in China's