A team of 14 officers from across the different functions and disciplines responded to the call to be trained as volunteers to support HTX's drone box operations in the fight against COVID-19.
The drone box operations helmed by Robotics, Automation and Unmanned Systems (RAUS) Centre of Expertise enable the Singapore Police Force to deploy drones to survey an industrial estate in the West. The objective is to check for any congregation of people during this Circuit Breaker period, and enhance public safety and security.
Meet two of the volunteers who completed their stints in May.
Ling Kok Yong, Director of the Civil Defence Programme Management Centre and Ng Geok Peng who leads the Cybersecurity Audit Branch/Audit Division.
Why did you volunteer for drone box ops?
Kok Yong: I am fascinated by drones and robotics, and was keen to contribute towards the COVID-19 efforts. This was the perfect opportunity.
Geok Peng: All new technologies are of interest for me, plus my schedule allowed me to volunteer during this period. I was also interested to find out more about advanced drones, as I was only familiar with my son’s play drone.
Kok Yong
What insights did you glean while working on drone box ops?
Kok Yong: It was definitely not an easy task to fly the drones and operate the payload at the same time. Notwithstanding that the drones are on auto-pilot mode, it still takes a lot of training to be able to operate the camera smoothly.
Geok Peng: It was interesting to know that the drones are able to use infrared sensors to detect movements that can help to spot unauthorised congregations. The sensors can also pick up movements even when a person is under covered areas. This is something that the human eyes cannot spot. I also learnt from the RAUS and Airobotics Engineer that the drone boxes can be configured with pre-defined routes and do not require an operator to fly the drones.
Geok Peng
How did you feel about the entire experience?
Kok Yong: It was an immense experience, understanding first-hand how technology plays a significant role in the Whole-of-Government efforts. The RAUS team is doing a great job in deploying the drones to remotely monitor and ensure the compliance of safe distancing measures in the industrial estate.
Geok Peng: It was very fulfilling and an eye-opening experience. I found the experience to be both exciting and intriguing.
Thank you HTX volunteers!
Thanking all the volunteers for stepping forward to help out in this operation, Cheng Wee Kiang, Director/RAUS said, “Apart from helping to co-share the workload of the RAUS team, who is also involved in other COVID-19 operations, this deployment was an opportunity to expose the wider HTX community on the new technologies that RAUS is working on to support our frontline officers. We hope that the volunteers can learn something different from what they currently do, and perhaps give some thoughts to how some of these new technologies can potentially be applied to their work in supporting the Home Team. The RAUS team is looking forward to further conversations to evolve some of these ideas into new projects for RAUS CoE.”
