About Us

About Us
The Robotics Research Centre (RRC) was established in 1994 as a University centre with School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), School of Electric and Electronic Engineering (EEE) and School of Computer Engineering (SCE) as participating schools and is hosted by School of MAE. It is the first interdisciplinary research centre on robotics in Singapore.

The Centre's mission is to conduct cutting edge research in robotics, to pursue translational R&D for maximal socio-economical impact and to nurture future industrial leaders and work forces in robotics for Singapore. The new Bachelor of Engineering in Robotics degree programme focuses on acquiring practical and future ready robotics skills that are relevant to industry needs and is in line with Singapore's vision to become a Smart Nation.

The Centre currently has 22 active faculty PIs from MAE, over 150 researchers (including 87 research staffs, 55 PhD students), and 8 technical support staffs. The total active R&D grant received by the PIs amount to over S$30 million from public and private funding sources, just to name a few like A*STAR, National Robotics Programme, National Medical Research Council, Ministry of Education, National Research Foundation, Home Team Science and Technology Agency, NRF CREATE,  Delta, Schaeffler Corp Labs. Major research activities include medical robotics, rehabilitation and assistive robotics, social robotics and human-robot interaction, industrial robots, autonomous vehicles and mobile robots, biomimetic robots, and UAV.

The Centre has a total floor space of 2,200 square meters comprising of four main laboratories, discussion area and a limited fabrication and assembly workshop.

The Centre also actively promotes links with industry. Over the years, the Centre has provided consultancy services to industry as well as undertaken applied research. There are also multiple spin-offs associated with the Centre faculty members:

  • Endomaster Pte Ltd provides robotic-assisted endoscopic surgery technology.
  • ARTICARES (https://articares.com) designs innovative robots for hand and wrist rehabilitation.
  • AITREAT (https://www.aitreat.com) provides a robotic system for soft tissue therapeutic treatment.
  • Transforma Robotics offers innovative robotics solutions for indoor wall painting and construction quality assessment.
  • Eureka Robotics (https://eurekarobotics.com) provides software and systems to automate tasks that require simultaneously High Accuracy and High Agility (HA-HA).
  • Hand Plus Robotics (https://www.handplusrobotics.com) develops a robotics platform to integrate picking solutions for unstructured environments.
  • EndoPil Pte Ltd designs the world's first ingestible, catheter-free weight-management capsule.
In the area of international collaboration, the Centre hosts overseas students and researchers, on research attachments and collaborative programmes.