SINGAPORE, Jan 3 — Collecting a passport or NRIC at the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority’s (ICA) self collection kiosks now takes about five minutes, down from 11 minutes previously.

The faster process is powered by robots that move across storage shelves to retrieve documents and deliver them to kiosks, according to the Straits Times.

Deputy Superintendent Gerald Woo, senior manager of digital capability development at ICA’s policy and development division, said manual retrieval had been one of the biggest challenges for officers.

“It could be quite difficult to locate these documents among the many documents in the room,” he said.

ICA launched the Integrated Smart Document Management System (iSMART) in July 2025, deploying more than 100 disc shaped robots at the ICA Services Centre (ISC) in Crawford Street.

The centre began operations in April and sits next to the old ICA building, which is undergoing renovation.

Planning for iSMART began in 2019 with ICA working alongside the Home Team Science and Technology Agency and a vendor, followed by a two month pilot to gather public feedback.

Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam demonstrated the iRobo system in a video posted on his Facebook page, highlighting how the robots retrieve documents for customers.

Customers must book appointments in advance but can arrive at any time on the scheduled date.

After identity verification at the kiosk, a robot retrieves documents from one of 23 shelves that can store up to 1,000 NRICs and 2,000 passports.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) mats guide the robots to the correct shelf, where a robotic arm collects the documents and places them inside the robot for delivery.

Customers must bring their old documents and insert them into the kiosk, which invalidates them by punching holes.

ICA officers remain on site to assist users during the process.

Before iSMART, ICA required 20 officers to serve the same number of customers at once.

Now, only five officers oversee 20 kiosks.

Larger robots also transport documents from the production area to the storage room and sort those destined for post offices.

Aruna Morgaya, senior manager of customer operations at ISC, said members of the public have praised the speed of the new system.

She added that officers welcome the change because they no longer perform repetitive manual tasks and can focus on other duties such as interviews for passport and NRIC applications.

“Witnessing the tangible and positive impact of the team’s hard work actually makes all the effort that we have done worthwhile,” said Woo.