Realising Singapore's Smart Nation vision

Singapore has set for itself an exciting goal to evolve into a Smart Nation over the next couple of years. It is an admirable and a progressive notion, much ahead of her time and that of many other countries.

Such a pursuit leverages on current and emerging technologies and equipment, appliances, novel sensor technologies, and software as well as a gamut of things yet to exist today. All these individual elements will be integrated to achieve the Smart Nation objective.

In the same vein, it will take many knowledge skillsets to bring this strategy to fruition. There will be a need for engineering disciplines, scientists, technicians, creative urban planners, infrastructure service providers, among many others. In short, the evolution of Singapore into a Smart Nation requires a multi-disciplinary approach.

The Smart Nation vision will almost certainly see the creation of smart, interconnected urban assets for the benefit of the public good. In a simple example, a comprehensive, nationwide camera-and-lighting network will deliver on the key functions as the name suggests as well as help with public security.

For such a system to behave intelligently as part of a network, an advanced modelling system that validates the overall design, tests the compatibility of each of the system components before implementation, and determines environmental pressures like wind loading and wear-and-tear due to heat and humidity is instrumental.

These assets will need to "understand" the various ways in which they might fail (failure modes) and will also "sense" when failure is pending. Appropriate action will be taken depending on the likelihood and consequence of the potential failure.

For example, a light pole that detects a corrosion issue or impact from a vehicle may raise an alarm, shut itself down, initiate an automated remedial maintenance or submit a request for manual maintenance intervention.

From our experience, designing and undertaking these efforts would be reinforced through consultation with independent testing, inspection, and certification experts, who bring with them global expertise from in-country partnerships.

These experts will assist in the design stage of the Smart Nation assets, for example by creating advanced models using sophisticated computer simulation software technologies to better understand the expected reliability, availability, and maintainability of these assets.

This modelling in the design stage will lay the cornerstone for smart infrastructure that has the lowest possible Total Cost of Ownership over the lifetime of the asset. These experts will also assist in areas such as optimised materials selection and in the implementation of smart failure detection and prevention systems.

Assistance will also be provided in the operating phase of these assets, perhaps through remote asset condition and performance monitoring and in providing assistance in maximising the operating life of the assets.

When such systems – whether camera and lighting systems or parking applications – are subsequently implemented, there will be the key requirements of ensuring the mechanical and structural integrity of the public asset, a strong understanding of the materials being used, and the need to leverage the information being captured regarding asset health and performance from the various sensor technologies being used.

A smart system should be able to ascertain and monitor the remnant life of the lighting poles and camera equipment in highways or street corners. Early detection of potential system failures through the likes of understanding the corrosion of materials and the ability to identify and effectively replace equipment should be part of the holistic asset management strategy.

Such a holistic approach at the onset makes a significant difference between high-cost, high-risk reactive maintenance and lower-cost, lower-risk planned maintenance during scheduled asset downtime.

With an intelligent, predictive maintenance information technology system, data from a variety of sources can be analysed for future purposes. Smart systems will learn from this data and adapt accordingly.

In this way, the Smart Nation continues to grow in intelligence over time and further optimise the operation and maintenance of these assets. Reliable data ecosystems and asset management software will be essential in unlocking the full Smart Nation vision.

Asset data must be standardised, up-to-date, and accessible by both humans and other systems. For example, road management systems should be able to access data from street lighting and camera systems and vice versa. Testing, Inspection, and Certification organisations have a role to play in ensuring that appropriate asset management software and database systems are implemented.

When this data is managed well, it will unlock potential improvements to the overall asset management and maintenance strategy and in the way that networks of smart assets interact with each other.

As part of the Smart Nation journey, personnel must be adequately trained to construct and maintain such a system. Contractors and suppliers must hold appropriate certifications and quality must be assured by implementing periodic surveillance checks. These are an equally important element of a successful transition to the Smart Nation vision.

Singapore's Smart Nation is about making Singaporean lives more convenient and sustainable and about strengthening the community and society. As the government said recently, at the core, it aims to enable Singaporeans "to do things we never imagined we could do, and empower communities to look out for and help one another."

To drive this further, a new Smart Nation Programme Office is being set up to take in perspectives and ideas from many sources, to make sure that Singapore takes a whole-of-Government, whole-of-nation approach to building a Smart Nation.

It is when these components, and equally important the strategic management of the initiative, come together that it will pave the way for Singapore to manage itself "intelligently". Then the Smart Nation vision will be realised.