1. Mr Tan Chye Hee, Permanent Secretary of Home Affairs. Mr Chan Tsan, CE/HTX, Mr Teo Ming Kian, Chairman/ST Engineering. Many distinguished guests, my colleagues from the Home Team. Good afternoon to all of you.
2. It is a real pleasure to join all of you today for the launch of the Home Team Humanoid Robotics Centre, or H2RC.
3. This afternoon is not just the opening of a new engineering facility,
(a) it is the next step forward on how we support our Home Team officers through new frontiers,
(b) and how we can continue to keep Singapore safe and secure, whilst at the same time, keeping our officers safe and secure.
The Challenge
4. As you know, our Home Team officers perform difficult, demanding, and often dangerous work.
(a) They answer every call for help, often putting their very lives on the line to save others.
(b) And they do so to ensure that the rest of us can go about our daily lives with confidence and with peace of mind.
5. But at the same time, I think we all know that the operating environment is becoming more and more complex. Threats are moving faster and also in new and evolving ways.
Technology is reshaping public safety globally
6. Around the world, public safety agencies are turning to technology to keep their officers out of danger and also to reach places where officers can’t safely go.
(a) This, I think, is not new. Bomb disposal teams have long sent robots in ahead of human officers.
(b) When Notre-Dame burnt in 2019, Paris firefighters sent a robot, the Colossus, into the cathedral when it became too dangerous for people.
(c) Robots assisted in the Fukushima nuclear plant clean-up, operating in radioactive environments where no humans should go.
Why this matters even more for Singapore
7. If technology is an advantage for others, then I think, in Singapore, we look at it also as an advantage. But, I think it is also closer to it being a necessity, and not just a luxury. Let me explain that.
8. First, in terms of manpower.
(a) Our workforce is ageing and will grow older quickly in the years ahead, and the Home Team draws from the same limited pool as every other sector.
(b) Human resources in Singapore is finite; yet, the demand for our services keeps rising – more medical emergencies will be inevitable from an older population, busier checkpoints, which we see more complex crimes.
(c) We cannot solve this with sheer numbers alone.
9. Second, from a land use perspective.
(a) Our emergencies unfold typically in dense, high-rise, densely populated as well as close proximity, increasingly underground city.
(b) We do not have the luxury of having vast space or distance between one infrastructure to another, and incidents therefore often happen in tight spaces, close to people, and very often, these two factors mean that there’s little, if not, no margin for error.
(c) At the same time, these incidents must be resolved quickly and precisely, before the threat evolves or spreads.
10. So, the questions we have to ask ourselves really are as follows:
(a) How can we do more with less?
(b) How can we continue to keep Singapore and Singaporeans safe in the face of new threats and our very real constraints?
(c) And how do we achieve all of these and still ensure the safety of our first responders?
The Vision
11. Technology must therefore be an integral part of this answer.
12. And for the Home Team, as I said, it is not just a nice-to-have; it is imperative and a necessary force multiplier. It is how a small force like ours can continue to punch above our weight, and continue to keep Singapore and Singaporeans safe.
13. Over the years, we have used science and technology
(a) to strengthen situational awareness,
(b) to improve our decision-making,
(c) and support our officers on the ground.
(d) Now, I think, it’s time for us to think about taking the next leap:
(i) to bring AI out of the digital world and into the physical world,
(ii) through intelligent robots that can work alongside our officers in real operational environments.
What H2RC will enable our officers to do
14. And this is where H2RC comes in.
(a) H2RC is the first centre of its kind dedicated specifically to humanoid robotics for public safety.
15. What are some of the scenarios that we can consider using this technology?
16. Well, let’s take a chemical leak.
(a) Today, a HazMat officer suits up, goes into the leak, takes samples, shuts valves, comes back to the samples.
(b) In future, a humanoid could identify the source and contain the spill.
17. What about the aftermath of an explosion?
(a) Today, a forensic officer will have to recover evidence from unstable debris, with the risk of a second device or a perhaps secondary movements and collapse.
(b) In future, a humanoid could take the place of this officer. It can go in and do that, and no officer needs to stand in the way of unnecessary danger.
18. Or take a prison situation.
(a) A humanoid could take on routine cell searches and yard checks, and this frees up a prison officer from doing what only a human can do – engaging inmates, supporting them, mentoring them on their journey towards rehabilitation.
19. In every case that I have cited in these examples, the principle is the same.
20. The robot takes on the routine, physically demanding, or the dangerous work.
(a) Our officers focus on the work that calls for empathy, for judgement, and for leadership – the human instincts behind the job that the Home Team officers do – and that can be the province of our officers.
(b) We are augmenting our officers, not replacing them – so that they can do more, and so that they can do more safely as well.
Getting there: the Body, the Brain, and the Data
21. To get there, I think three things must come together.
22. First, you might ask – why Humanoids? What’s the body form?
(a) Because the Home Team’s mission takes us wherever we are needed – and in the real world we don’t get to choose or control the terrain in which our officers operate.
(b) A robot with a human form can go where our officers go, and use the tools that our officers use, without ourselves having to redesign the environment around it.
23. Second, what about the brain that operates the body?
(a) The Home Team already has robots in operation today, and they have served us well.
(b) But they perform tasks that are largely pre-programmed.
(c) The next breakthrough, therefore, is Embodied AI.
(d) Robots that can learn, can perceive, can reason, and act in a dynamic, real-world environment.
(e) Such adaptive intelligence needs to be trained on enormous computing power.
(f) This builds on NGINE, HTX's sovereign AI infrastructure, which today already supports some 35 Home Team AI products.
(g) Today, working with Singtel RE:AI, we will take it to its next bound –
(i) operationalising the next-generation AI computing infrastructure,
(ii) with H2RC amongst the first to put it to work to power embodied AI.
24. Third, what about the data that powers this?
(a) Most commercial development today is geared towards manufacturing, industrial automation and household tasks.
(b) But a robot trained for a factory floor will not know how to operate safely and effectively at a critical incident scene.
(c) To make humanoids work for the Home Team, we must therefore train them with real public safety data.
25. And that is precisely what H2RC will enable us to do. H2RC will be a testbed and also a collaboration platform.
(a) It will bring together physical mock-ups of real operational environments, where Home Team-specific skills, the expertise of relevant industry entities, and the problem-solving know-how of research and academia institutions.
(b) All of these converge to train our Embodied AI models.
(c) Together, we will build capabilities that are operationally meaningful for the Home Team.
MOU with ST Engineering
26. Of course, this endeavour that I have just sketched out will require partnerships.
27. No one can do this alone, and that is why today’s Memorandum of Understanding with ST Engineering is important.
28. ST Engineering brings not only deep robotics expertise, but also strong partnerships with leading robot manufacturers.
29. Combined with the Home Team’s operational knowledge, this will help us to access, to adapt and to integrate the right platforms for public safety, ensure that they are cyber-secure and trusted from the outset, and move them progressively from trials through to real-world, actual, deployment.
30. I thank ST Engineering for their partnership, and look forward to more industry and academic partners joining us at H2RC.
Conclusion
31. What we build here will ultimately be measured by its impact on the mission. Ultimately, for all the robots and the nice designs – it’s the impact that we can make in the real world that matters a lot. How can we have a stronger Home Team, safer officers, and more time for our officers to focus on work that requires a human instinct, judgment, empathy and a human touch?
32. Our goal is clear: we aim to have the first humanoid robot working alongside Home Team officers in a real operational setting, performing defined tasks safely and reliably by 2028.
33. To our HTX engineers, you continue to amaze me every day with your passion, with your dedication, and I thank you very much for all that you do, all that you bring to the table, for your ingenuity as well as your dedication in bringing H2RC to life.
34. With that, I am very pleased to launch the Home Team Humanoid Robotics Centre. My warmest congratulations to HTX.
35. Thank you all for joining us in today’s very simple but meaningful ceremony.
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