Mr. Oliver Tian, President of the Singapore Industrial Automation Association, gave a presentation on fostering robotics from a smart city to a smart nation. He discussed the association's vision to be the leading hub for knowledge in applying automation, robotics, and IoT technologies. He also discussed their mission to promote business through strategic alliances and applying technologies. He then covered how intelligent robots are arriving and transforming competency levels, service models, and the economy. He outlined the premises and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for Singapore becoming a smart nation. Finally, he discussed how intelligent robots can support a smart nation by being built through evolutionary means to help converge technologies and address issues like the digital divide.

1. Mr Oliver Tian 田少明
President 主席
Singapore Industrial Automation Association
新加坡工业自动化协会
Founding Member, IoT Asia
CEO and Director, HutCabb Services
Thursday, 2 July 2015
Fostering Robotics
- From a Smart City to a Smart Nation
The Singapore Address

2. VISION
To be the leading hub for knowledge in the application of
Automation, Robotics and IoT technologies, catalyzing
adoption to enhance business value in the region.
MISSION
To promote business through strategic alliance, application of
technology and services to our members.
Vanguard of the
robotics and
automation
movement since
1982
Actively promote
the development
and application of
automation and
M2M technologies
Tasked to promote
automation
business locally
and internationally
Enabler of
showcases and
adoption of
Robotics and IoT
technologies
SIAA – Our Vision / Mission
2 July 2015 Page 2

3. The Arrival of Intelligent Robots
• Issues emerge consequent to rising
affluence and growing population
• Robotic applications have become
more intelligent
• Social and ethical issues
• Technical considerations
• Emerging technologies which shape
the design of the new-age robots
2 July 2015 Page 3

4. • New competencies at a higher order
• Multi-discipline adept in a variety of Robotics and Automation technologies
• Integration into multi-domain workflow and assimilation
• Able to support collaborative eco-system
Transforming
Competency
Levels
• Convergence of competitive landscape eg a man-machine model
• From Service Improvement to Service Innovation
• Tapping talents in a more distributed innovation model
• Negligible go-to-market planning time
Transforming
Service Models
• Global ready
• Servicing the ubiquitous society
• Effective and efficient monetization of data analytics
• The “economy never sleeps …”
Transforming the
Economy
Major Transformations Predicted
2 July 2015 Page 4

5. 2 July 2015 Page 5
Premises of our SMART Nation

6. 2 July 2015 Page 6
Towards a SMART Nation
Strengths
1. Current infrastructure allows us to
have a head-start in connectivity and
drive more intelligent processes.
2. Future proof – wealth of past
experiences, strong commitment to
SkillsFuture.
3. A nimble yet sophisticated test-bed
for SMART Nation.
4. Array of pilot projects
 Government investments in New Tech
 Incentives for early adoption
 Matching R&D to industry adoption
Weaknesses
1. Lack of common standards –
diversity of products and deployment.
2. Long journey of skills upgrading skills;
- Untimely for rapid deployment;
- Lack of skilled resources.
3. Challenging to test high-impact and
diverse deployments.
4. Limited opportunity to scale – choice
of attracting MNCs.

7. 2 July 2015 Page 7
Towards a SMART Nation
Opportunity
1. Be the World’s first SMART Nation.
 Attracting foreign investments
 Improving Quality of Life (QoL)
 Dovetailing world initiatives
2. Solve the labour crunch and increase
productivity  improved GDP.
3. Accelerate talent development.
4. Lead the regional adoption of SMART
City deployment
- Upgrade ASEAN
- Leverage regional economies
- Lead standardization
Threats
1. Embracing the digital divide –
widening gap between the “haves”
and “have-nots”.
2. Optimizing change management –
how fast can Society assimilate
technology upgrade.
3. Managing brain drain …
4. Accepting new norms and man-
machine co-existence.

8. 2 July 2015 Page 8
Intelligent Robots : Supporting a SMART Nation
“Sow the seeds of collaborative interest to unleash new thinking
that can have far reaching impact!”
Fads
1. We must need a ‘biological
inspiration’ to build intelligent robots.
2. Future Shock – brute force use of
genetic algorithms is unacceptable.
3. Intelligent Robots must be fully
autonomous.
4. Wishful thinking : Intelligent Robots
is only a dream – not a reality.
Facts
The degree of autonomy is a function of
user definition (diversity).
Intelligent robots shall be built by evolutionary
means – step by step (adaptation).
Converging technologies will trend towards
easing the search for intelligence (convergence).
The automotive was an impossible dream –
but today we have flying machines;
Intelligent Robots are already amongst us
(dare to dream).

9. Transforming the Economy – SMART Nation
2 July 2015 Page 9

10. Thank You