CARTIN is the Centre for Advanced Robotics Technology Innovation, funded by the National Research Foundation of Singapore (NRF).
CARTIN capitalises on Singapore’s excellence in robotics in research and industry, promoting the development of robotics towards advanced and innovative solutions, applying technologies and skills to support the needs of industry and society across diverse fields. CARTIN specifically addresses three application domains:
- Logistics
- Manufacturing
- Robots for humans
Two research thrusts drive the CARTIN scientific effort:
- Sentient autonomy
- Collaborative autonomy
NUS expertise in robotics contributes to both research thrusts, to address applications of robots for humans, specifically in eldercare. Among the topics investigated in CARTIN are:
- Semantic mapping and navigation for assistive robots indoors
- Physical reasoning and robot imagination for manipulation of everyday objects
- Physical interaction with soft assistive robot arms
- Imitation learning for easy robot programming
Relevant collaborations are in place with NUHS (www.nuhs.edu.sg) and CHART (www.cgh.com.sg/chart), so as to involve end users from the early design phases and ensure responsiveness to their needs. User trials will increase the uptake potential of the research results and ultimately support the wider adoption of robots.
CARTIN was established in March 2021 and it is funded for 5 years.