(Reuters)- Since the pandemic, Singapore had a shortfall of human bodies to fill their labor needs, which has been usually filled in by offshore workers from countries like the Philippines. But governmental mandated lockdowns made their travel basically impossible, so they turned to robotics. In essence, the pandemic sped up the process of technological advancement.
For instance, a construction site in Singapore, bought a four-legged robot named "Spot" that surveys the mud and gravel on certain locations on the jobsite to monitor progress. The robot built by Boston Dynamics does the job of two employees.
In the Singapore National Library, they implemented two shelf reading robots that are capable of scanning about 30% of their daily book returns (or 100,000 books). According to the assistant at the National Library Board, "Staff need not read the call numbers one by one on the shelf, and this reduces the routine and labor-intensive aspects."
Singapore has the second highest number of robots being used in the workforce (605 robots used per 10,000 human employees); who are second to South Korea (932 robots used per 10,000 human employees). But people still feel that human interaction is still needed in many various fields (outside of manufacturing style job settings like retail, for example); so, a robot won't encroach completely anytime soon, but it is spreading its usefulness around the globe.
References:
From baristas to inspectors: Singapore's robot workforce plugs labour gaps | Reuters
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