Singapore plans to deploy AI-powered humanoid robots to assist Home Team officers in operational roles by 2028, officials announced during the launch of the Home Team Humanoid Robotics Centre (H2RC) on September 30. The initiative aims to enhance public safety by assigning routine, physically demanding, or hazardous tasks to robots, allowing human officers to concentrate on responsibilities requiring judgment, empathy, and leadership.
Second Minister for Home Affairs Edwin Tong emphasized that the robots are intended to support rather than replace officers. “The robot takes on the routine, physically demanding or the dangerous work. And our officers focus on the work that calls for empathy, for judgment and for leadership, the human instincts behind the job that the Home Team officers do,” he said.
The H2RC, established by the Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX), has secured approximately S$100 million in funding and occupies a 29,000-square-foot facility in the one-north innovation district. The centre serves as a dedicated hub for developing humanoid robots tailored for public safety applications. Its infrastructure includes motion-capture systems, human demonstration and simulation areas, data collection zones, and physical testing environments modeled after real-world scenarios such as post-blast scenes, chemical plants, and prison cells.
Potential deployment areas for the robots include assisting the Singapore Civil Defence Force with ambulance resupply and hazardous materials operations, supporting police in post-blast investigations, and conducting prison cell inspections for the Singapore Prison Service. Tong highlighted the safety benefits of robot involvement in hazardous situations, such as chemical leaks or explosion aftermaths, where officers face risks of secondary explosions or structural collapse. By having robots undertake these dangerous tasks, officers are protected from unnecessary harm and freed to focus on more complex duties.
The robots will leverage HTX’s sovereign AI platform, NGINE, recently upgraded with Nvidia’s GB300 chips. This enhancement allows for training large multimodal and embodied AI models capable of performing complex, multi-step missions, adapting to changing conditions, and recovering from failures. The centre plans to develop AI agents that can act on behalf of humans, moving beyond repetitive tasks to ones that require reasoning.
The launch also saw a Memorandum of Understanding signed between HTX and ST Engineering to collaborate on advancing robotics and embodied AI technologies. Other partners include US-based FIEAI, General Robotics, and France’s Mistral AI. Chin Zhihao, deputy director of HTX’s Robotics, Automation and Unmanned Systems Centre of Expertise, stressed the importance of maintaining platform neutrality to keep pace with the rapidly evolving AI landscape. He noted that H2RC intends to expand its ecosystem, collaborating with various industry and academic players without limiting itself to specific technologies or providers.
With Singapore facing challenges of an aging and limited workforce, officials view the integration of AI humanoid robots as a strategic step toward enhancing operational efficiency and public safety capabilities.