{"id":25552,"date":"2026-01-04T04:57:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T20:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=25552"},"modified":"2026-01-04T04:57:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T20:57:02","slug":"collecting-your-passport-and-ic-takes-just-5-minutes-with-icas-new-robots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=25552","title":{"rendered":"Collecting your passport and IC takes just 5 minutes with ICA\u2019s new robots"},"content":{"rendered":"


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SINGAPORE \u2013 It now takes about five minutes to collect a new passport or identification card via the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority\u2019s (ICA) self-collection kiosks, compared with 11 minutes in the past.<\/p>\n

The time savings are thanks to robots, which zip around storage shelves to retrieve these documents and deliver them to the kiosks.<\/p>\n

More than 100 of these disc-shaped devices are part of <\/p>\n

ICA\u2019s integrated smart document management system (iSMART),<\/p>\n

<\/a> launched in July 2025.<\/p>\n

The Straits Times went on a behind-the-scenes tour of the system at the <\/p>\n

ICA Services Centre<\/p>\n

<\/a> (ISC) in Crawford Street on Dec 22, 2025.<\/p>\n

The centre began operating in April 2025 and is adjacent to the old ICA building, which is under renovation.<\/p>\n

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Members of the public can use self-collection kiosks to collect their identity cards and passports at the ICA Services Centre (ISC).<\/p>\n

ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ISC\u2019s senior manager of customer operations Aruna Morgaya said that before the new kiosks were set up, some people faced unpredictable and long waiting times when collecting their identification documents.<\/p>\n

They had to queue alongside others who had more complex cases, such as those who had lost or damaged their passports.<\/p>\n

Ms Aruna said: \u201cIt could be quite frustrating because they would not be able to have a sense of their schedule for the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

ICA officers had to manually transfer and store passports and identification cards after they were produced.<\/p>\n

When someone came to collect their documents, officers had to search the storage area to retrieve them, like sifting through a library.<\/p>\n

Deputy Superintendent (DSP) Gerald Woo, senior manager of digital capability development at ICA\u2019s policy and development division, said this was one of the major pain points for officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be quite difficult to locate these documents among the many documents in the room,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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ISC\u2019s senior manager of customer operations Aruna Morgaya (left) carrying an iRobo, and Deputy Superintendent (DSP) Gerald Woo with an iRobo+. The robots are tasked to collect and deliver identification documents.<\/p>\n

ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2019, ICA started planning ways to solve these problems through the iSMART system.<\/p>\n

DSP Woo\u2019s team, Ms Aruna\u2019s team, the Home Team Science and Technology Agency, and an external vendor took about five years to design and develop the final solution. This included a two-month pilot phase with members of the public to gather their feedback.<\/p>\n

To use the self-collection kiosks at ISC, customers need to make an appointment in advance. They can arrive at any time on the scheduled date.<\/p>\n

After customers verify their identities at the kiosk, a robot is dispatched to retrieve their documents.<\/p>\n

The robots zoom across a room with 23 storage shelves, each storing up to 1,000 identification cards and 2,000 passports.<\/p>\n

The floor is lined with radio frequency identification-enabled, or RFID-enabled, mats that guide the robots to shelves with specific documents. RFID uses radio waves to identify objects. <\/p>\n

A robotic arm at the shelf takes the documents and deposits them in the robot, which ferries them back to the kiosk.<\/p>\n

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The floor is lined with radio frequency identification-enabled, or RFID-enabled, mats to guide the robots to shelves with specific documents.<\/p>\n

ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Customers have to bring along their old identification documents and insert them into the kiosk, which punches holes to invalidate them.<\/p>\n

ICA officers are present to guide users through the process.<\/p>\n

ICA said that before iSMART, it would have taken 20 officers to serve the same number of customers at once.<\/p>\n

Now, it takes only five officers to oversee 20 kiosks.<\/p>\n

On top of the robots that move between storage and kiosks, larger robots that can hold up to 10 passports and 10 identification cards at a time have taken over the job of delivering new documents from the production area to the storage room. They sort the documents and pick out those bound for collection at post offices.<\/p>\n

Ms Aruna said members of the public have commented on how fast the self-collection process is.<\/p>\n

She added that officers appreciate not having to do manual and repetitive tasks, which allows them to try other job functions, such as conducting interviews for passport and NRIC applications.<\/p>\n

DSP Woo said: \u201cWitnessing the tangible and positive impact of the team\u2019s hard work actually makes all the effort that we have done worthwhile.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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