November 21, 2024
SINGAPORE – The winged residents at wildlife attraction Bird Paradise will soon have their own food delivery service – courtesy of a robot.
A self-driving, all-terrain vehicle that can traverse slopes and damp pathways within the park will be deployed to send food to designated points near the birds’ enclosures.
This delivery robot will be joined at Mandai Wildlife Reserve’s parks by a surveillance robot, which conducts safety patrols, and a concierge robot, which will interact with visitors and provide park information.
The three robots, which will be deployed in the first quarter of 2025, were unveiled on Nov 19 at a media showcase of a trial held by Mandai Wildlife Group (MWG), in collaboration with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).
Bird Paradise, which opened in November 2023, is designed to replicate the birds’ natural habitats.
But delivering bird feed across the sprawling 17ha site is time-consuming for park keepers, who typically send heavy batches of feed on a buggy. Using robots for the task is one way to ease the load of employees, allowing them to focus on assisting guests and looking after the birds, said MWG.
IMDA and MWG said in a statement that the six-month trial is being conducted to evaluate the feasibility of outdoor robots.
Insights from the trial will help improve the technology and pave the way for large-scale adoption of the robots across various industries, they said.
The delivery robot, for instance, is unlike most autonomous mobile robots in the market that are designed for smooth and dry surfaces. The buggy-sized vehicle, named Pika, can carry loads of up to 250kg and is fitted with rugged wheels that allow it to scale slopes, as well as go over curbs and wet terrain.
Pika will travel up to several kilometres during each deployment from a centralised bird feed kitchen to the birds’ enclosures.
The use of a delivery robot such as Pika is expected to free up some 1,200 man-hours yearly, said MWG.
Visitors walking past the Concierge Autonomous Mobile Robot along the sheltered walkway towards the entrance of Bird Paradise on Nov 19. PHOTO: THE STRAITS TIMES
Also in early 2025, visitors to the wildlife reserve will be greeted by the artificial intelligence (AI) concierge robot built by local tech company Autove Robotics.
The robot, which displays a friendly-looking avatar on an in-built screen, can give visitors directions and prices and recommend activities.
It can also physically lead visitors to public facilities around the Singapore Zoo entrance, where it will be stationed during the trial.
Configured by US tech giant IBM based on its watsonx AI platform, the robot’s systems are designed to refer to information only from Mandai Wildlife Reserve’s website and official resources to prevent errors.
The robot can also alert users to changes in the weather based on official weather forecast resources that it is linked with.
The concierge, delivery and surveillance robots, at the entrance of Bird Paradise on Nov 19, are in a six-month trial. PHOTO: THE STRAITS TIMES
A surveillance robot called Dash-er will support security officers in monitoring park grounds using a live camera feed, light detection and ranging sensors that are linked to a centralised command post.
Early in 2025, Dash-er will help conduct safety patrols along a 3.3km boardwalk around the Singapore Zoo and River Wonders.
It is expected to free up roughly half the workload for security personnel, said Mr Edmas Neo, vice-president of MWG’s Transformation Office.
All the robots are remotely monitored, managed and coordinated via a centralised control system.
The trial follows an agreement that IMDA and MWG signed in 2023 to test outdoor robotics at the parks and other forms of technology, as part of a nationwide push to deploy robots in more sectors to curb manpower shortages and improve efficiency.
Ms Belina Lee, MWG’s deputy chief executive of transformation and growth, said the group aims to turn the wildlife reserve into a smart precinct that uses technology to improve guest experience and animal care.
“The autonomous mobile robotics trial… seeks to demonstrate the potential of autonomous systems in dynamic environments… across multiple use cases,” said Ms Lee.
The Surveillance Autonomous Mobile Robot can patrol diverse terrains with live camera feed and alert the teams to unidentified objects. PHOTO: THE STRAITS TIMES
Some visitors got an early glimpse of the robots.
Dr Annie Wong, a volunteer accompanying children to Bird Paradise as part of a visit organised by a charity, asked the concierge robot for directions to the nearest washroom and food outlets.
The 50-year-old research scientist said: “The bot is easy to use and provides useful info to navigate around the park, although it’s a bit laggy.”