PulauUjong: Singapore has launched Hundreds of “friendly” robots that can speak all four of multi-ethnic Singapore’s official languages – English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil – plus Japanese and “Singlish”, a local patois that mixes English with words from the myriad local tongues and will help clean the city-state’s hotels, shopping malls and government buildings. The initiative is introduced in a bid to help reduce the labor shortage Singapore is currently facing.
Four of the robots, which have oval-shaped heads with lights for eyes, have already been commissioned and the government is planning to commission 300 more by March, 2020.
The robots scrub, mop, vacuum and sweep autonomously, and interact with people around them in their own language.
The robot comes in 13 different models and is produced by local company LionsBot, and can be rented for Sg $1,350 (about $1,000) a month.
LionsBot has signed agreements with six cleaning partners to deploy the robots gradually over the coming months as they are produced and meet the deadline of March 2020. The company spokesperson said that the robots were not intended to replace human cleaners, but to act as their assistants.