Sponsored by SGInnovate

Lead the Change with Changemakers

Robotics Innovation & Entrepreneurship (RIE) Forum 2017 aims to advance real-world innovations by connecting start-ups with industry leaders. The forum will focus on multiple key domains such as: autonomous driving, logistics, healthcare, service, collaborative manufacturing and education and social.

Share your ideas with VCs, industry experts and capability leaders.

How It Works

  1. Industry leaders will share current real-world needs and their latest developments
  2. Up to four start-ups will give a 5-minute pitch of their solution(s) to the audience
  3. The panel will select the winning pitch for each focus area
 

Entry Details

  1. Click ‘APPLY’ below to submit your application to pitch
  2. One speaker from every shortlisted start-up will receive a complimentary exhibitor pass; other team members can purchase exhibitor pass at SGD 450
  3. Shortlisted start-ups will also have access to the Start-up Corner to share their products, ideas and solutions

Important Dates (not to be missed!)

  • April 26, 2017: Deadline for submission of application
  • April 30, 2017: Announcement of shortlisted start-ups

Pitch Your Best Ideas To

Investors

Participating Changemakers


Who Will Be Speaking

Chris Leck, Director of Futures Division, Ministry of Transport, Singapore

Singapore’s Vision for Autonomous Vehicle Deployment​

The presentation will give an overview of Singapore’s vision for the deployment of Autonomous Vehicles as well as of on-going Autonomous Vehicle trials in Singapore.

James Kuffner, CTO, Toyota Research Institute, USA

Cloud Robotics: Intelligent Machines in a Cloud-Connected World

The Automotive and Robotics industries are currently undergoing dramatic transformations. High-performance networking and cloud computing has radically altered how individuals and businesses manage data and computation. A new generation of cloud-enabled robots, a.k.a. "Cloud Robotics", is now poised to fundamentally disrupt the state-of-the-art in the development of intelligent machines. The long-term prospects for the future evolution of robot intelligence based on search, distributed computing, machine learning, and big data will enable future robotic systems to be more capable and useful.

Emilio Frazzoli, CTO, nuTonomy, Singapore

nuTonomy: Driving towards tomorrow

How is technology going to change mobility in the future? How will our lives and our cities change as autonomous cars become a reality? In this talk I will explain the vision that is being pursued by nuTonomy, for a future in which safe, reliable, and affordable mobility is provided to all through a fleet of autonomous shared vehicles, augmenting and complementing other transportation options.

Rosen Diankov, CTO, Mujin, Japan

Emergence of Intelligent Logistics Picking Systems

In the past year, the Mujin PickWorker product has succeeded in commercializing logistics picking tasks like depalletization, order fulfillment, item packing, palletization, random box picking, and conveyor tracking. All of these tasks involve tight sensor integration and require years of planning and testing edge cases to overcome all the challenges to achieve reliable, non-stop picking; in contrast, the Mujin PickWorker can be configured from scratch and become deployment ready within days.

Advanced robotics research is full of computer vision algorithms, motion planning algorithms, control methods, gripper designs, and overall architecture design ideas; unfortunately getting the right combination of these technologies to deliver a system for logistics is extremely hard. Many companies worldwide are rushing to commercialize intelligent picking systems, but the jury is still out on which methods are the best.

In this talk, I will present the Mujin product line-up, system capabilities, development methodologies, and how our team is pushing the state of art in intelligent logistics picking systems.

Tamanna Dahiya, Director of APAC Innovation Center, DHL Customers Solution & Innovation, Singapore

Robotics in Logistics: DPDHL Trend Study and Pilots​

The presentation will focus on near term and longer term use cases of robotics in logistics operations as summarized in DHL Trend study and the learnings from the pilots being conducted in this area.

Steve Cousins, CEO, Savioke, USA

The Business of Delivering Delivery Robots

Nearly four years ago a team from Willow Garage formed a new company with the purpose of deploying robots into the world to help people. Believing that the technology was ready, the market was open, and the investment community was finally willing to fund robotics, Savioke’s journey began. Today, Savioke is recognized for developing the Relay robot, the first delivery robot for hotels, that's proving to be valuable in many other indoor spaces as well. The company has raised a successful Series A round of funding, completed over 100,000 deliveries, and has installations in multiple market sectors including hospitality, logistics, and high rise residential. And that is just the beginning of the Savioke story.

Stefan Grufman, Teamleader Software & Signal team, Husqvarna Group, Sweden

Scaling Research to Consumer Products

The talk from Husqvarna will be about how we, you the researchers and we the company, can bridge the gap between research and industrialization. It is the task for companies such as Husqvarna to implement and utilize research results in products, but in some cases the gap is very large. As an example, when and how can machine learning be used in commercial products with requirements on safety? What have we done (result/ideas) and what can we do to bridge this gap in the future?

Selina Seah, ACEO, Changi General Hospital, Singapore

CHARTing Future Healthcare Delivery​

Globally, developed countries are facing changing demographics where their populations are rapidly ageing. The future of healthcare requires new initiatives to transform care whilst ensuring that productivity of workforce is upheld. This presentation discusses opportunities for adopting solutions such as robotics and automation from perspective of augmenting healthcare service providers’ daily operations and ensuring delivery of high standard of care for the general population.

Pushkar Hingwe, Director of Robotic Motion Control, Intuitive Surgical, USA

da Vinci Robotic Surgery Platform – A product development perspective

Robot assisted surgery is bringing the advantages of minimally invasive surgery to procedures that were previously done open. The technology pillars: 3d Vision, intuitiveness and dexterity work together to make an effective robotic surgery platform. Da Vinci Xi system has further enhanced the capability of robotic surgery. Some engineering challenges that needed to be overcome during Xi development will be presented as examples of the effort needed to offer compelling patient and surgeon value.

Yasuhiko Hashimoto, General Manager, Robot Division, Kawasaki Heavy Industry, Japan

Dual Arm Collaborative Robot "duAro" for SMEs in Singapore

Problems in Singapore SMEs such as cost, land and aging labour force are quite similar to Japan.
This presentation will focus on the proposal which solves current problems in Singapore SMEs with the collaborative robot based on our experience in Japan.

David Low, CEO, Advanced Remanufacturing Technology Centre (ARTC), Singapore

Keeping Pace with Technology Advancement and Disruption through Industry-led Public-private Partnership in Advanced Manufacturing R&D​

The demand for better quality, cost down, shorter lead times, customisation and better product performance is a common ground in the manufacturing world. To keep up to these demands, it is necessary to keep up to the pace of technology advancement that disrupts the status quo or risk being disrupted altogether. However, it is ever challenging and costly for companies to deliver every technology and innovation alone at the right timing. Furthermore, the solutions for advancement manufacturing cannot be delivered any single company anymore, particularly with the convergence of digital and mechanical solutions. This presentation shares the public-private partnership model at the Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC) of A*STAR, where it currently has 44 industry members working together to address a number of advanced manufacturing challenges.

Adrian Lim, Director of Education Sector, Sectoral Innovation Group, Info-communications Media Development Authority (IDMA), Singapore

Robots for Early Childhood Education​

Robots for Early Childhood Education was initiated by the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore to trial the use of social robots in complementing teaching and learning at the preschool. Robots in our daily life are becoming more prevalent, ranging from autonomous vehicles, industry robots and now social robots at home and in schools. Exposing age-appropriate technologies to the young and prepare them early is key for Singapore’s push to be the world’s first Smart Nation.

Two social robots were trialled at two preschools to study the practical aspects of using social robots for lessons. Observations on the experience and impact were studied during the trial through lesson designs around the area of collaborative play and interactive storytelling. The outcome of the trial shows children at the age 5-6 are very receptive to social robots in the classroom and this paves the way for future innovative lesson designs involving robots.

Sarah Zhang, Head of Developer Partnerships & Business Operations, Segway Robotics Inc., China

Bring Alive Our Dream Robot with the Developer Community​

The presentation will focus on (1) how and why we built Loomo, a robotic platform that is extendable both in terms of hardware and software; (2) how start-ups can bring alive their own dream robots by simply building apps on Loomo and achieve social impact/commercial success. 

  • Loomo and our vision for Droid
  • Extendibility is the key: hardware and software designs
  • Win together through the developer program
  • Apps built by BMW, MIT and more


What's On

Tuesday - May 30, 2017

Venue: Sands O (Level 5, next to Grand Ballroom)

TIME SESSIONS INVESTORS
0955 – 1115 SESSION 1
Autonomous Driving
Chair: Jim Ostrowski, Blue River Technology, USA 
- Armstrong Industrial Corporation
- Clear Water Bay Startup Fund
0955 – 1010 Singapore’s Vision for Autonomous Vehicle Deployment​
Chris Leck
, Director of Futures Division, Ministry of Transport, Singapore
1010 – 1025 Cloud Robotics: Intelligent Machines in a Cloud-Connected World
James Kuffner, CTO, Toyota Research Institute, USA
1025 – 1040 nuTonomy: Driving towards tomorrow
Emilio Frazzoli
, CTO, nuTonomy, Singapore
1040 – 1055 Start-ups:
  • RobSense Technology, China
  • Movel AI, Singapore
  • xenobot, Taiwan
  • ArtiSense, USA
1055 – 1110 Q&A with Panel Discussion
1110 – 1130 AM Break – L5 Grand Ballroom Foyer
1130 – 1245 SESSION 2
Logistics Robotics
Chair: Michael Lau, Newcastle University International, Singapore
- BP Digital Innovation Organization
​- Clear Water Bay Startup Fund
1130 1145 Emergence of Intelligent Logistics Picking Systems
Rosen Diankov, CTO, Mujin, Japan
1145 1200 Robotics in Logistics: DPDHL Trend Study and Pilots
Tamanna Dahiya
, Director of APAC Innovation Center, DHL Customers Solution & Innovation, Singapore
1200 1220 Start-ups:
  • Cosmiqo International, Singapore
  • Unitech Mechatronics, Singapore
  • SMRTRobotics, Australia
1220 1245 Q&A with Panel Discussion
1245 – ​1345 Lunch Break – L5 Grand Ballroom Foyer
1445 – 1600 SESSION 3
Service Robotics

Chair: Jim Ostrowski, Blue River Technology, USA
​- Clear Water Bay Startup Fund
1445 – 1500 The Business of Delivering Delivery Robots​
Steve Cousins
, CEO, Savioke, USA
1500 – 1515 Scaling Research to Consumer Products
Stefan Grufman, Teamleader Software & Signal team, Husqvarna Group, Sweden
1515 – 1535 Start-ups:
  • qAIRa, Peru
  • Nourish Technology Inc, USA
  • Transforma Robotics, Singapore
  • Daran Robotics, China
1535 – 1600 Q&A with Panel Discussion
1600 – 1625 PM Break – L5 Grand Ballroom Foyer
1625 – 1740 SESSION 4
Healthcare Robotics

Chair: Bert Grobben, Founder & CEO, Budding Innovations, Singapore

​- Armstrong Industrial Corporation
- Clear Water Bay Startup Fund

1625 – 1640 CHARTing Future Healthcare Delivery​
Selina Seah
, ACEO, Changi General Hospital, Singapore
1640 – 1655 da Vinci Robotic Surgery Platform – A product development perspective
Pushkar Hingwe
, Director of Robotic Motion Control, Intuitive Surgical, USA
1655 – 1715 Start-ups:
  • ArtiCares, Singapore
  • SG Robotics, South Korea
  • Kinexcs Private Limited, Singapore
1715 – 1740 Q&A with Panel Discussion

Wednesday - May 31, 2017

Venue: Sands O (Level 5, next to Grand Ballroom)

TIME SESSIONS INVESTORS
0930 – 1045 SESSION 5
Collaborative Manufacturing
Chair: Michael Lau, Newcastle University International, Singapore

- Clear Water Bay Startup Fund
- GreenMeadows Accelerator

0930 – 0945 Dual Arm Collaborative Robot "duAro" for SMEs in Singapore
Yasuhiko Hashimoto
, General Manager, Robot Division, Kawasaki Heavy Industry, Japan
0945 – 1000 Keeping Pace with Technology Advancement and Disruption through Industry-led Public-private Partnership in Advanced Manufacturing R&D​
David Low
, CEO, Advanced Remanufacturing Technology Centre (ARTC), Singapore
1000 – 1020 Start-ups:
  • Robotic Materials Inc., USA
  • Mechavision Technology, Taiwan
  • Sunrise Instruments, China
  • Smart Robots s.r.l., Italy
  • ÆRobotics, USA
1020 – 1045 Q&A with Panel Discussion
1045 – 1105 AM Break – L5 Grand Ballroom Foyer
1105 – 1220 SESSION 6
Education and Social Robotics
Chair: Bert Grobben, Founder & CEO, Budding Innovations, Singapore
​- Clear Water Bay Startup Fund
1105 1120 Robots for Early Childhood Education​
Adrian Lim
, Director of Education Sector, Sectoral Innovation Group, Info-communications Media Development Authority (IDMA), Singapore
1120 1135 Bring Alive Our Dream Robot with the Developer Community​
Sarah Zhang
, Head of Developer Partnerships & Business Operations, Segway Robotics Inc., China
1135 1155 Start-ups:
  • Dragonautics, Singapore
  • KEYi Technology, China
1155 1220 Q&A with Panel Discussion