H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, announced the launch of the ‘Dubai Robotics and Automation (R&A) Programme’, a new robotics and automation initiative that aims to boost the development, testing and adoption of R&A on three main pillars – governance, support for R&D, and the adoption and utilization of emerging technologies.

Led by the Dubai Future Foundation, the initiative will provide 200,000 robots over the next 10 years to increase productivity and efficiency across various sectors including services, logistics, and the industrial space.

The programme will also focus on advancing R&D in five areas, including production and manufacturing, consumer services and tourism, healthcare, connected mobility and logistics, and extreme environments. 

The Dubai Media Office tweeted: “We seek to make #Dubai one of the world’s top 10 cities in R&A by adopting and developing advanced robotics technologies, empowering national talent, and generating innovative new solutions, products, and services.”

H.H. Sheikh Hamdan added: “The Dubai Robotics and Automation Programme aims to increase the sector’s contribution to Dubai’s GDP to 9 per cent within 10 years.”

WAM Agency reports that H.H. Sheikh Hamdan also allocated a number of laboratories develop R&A technologies, support research, testing, development, experimentation, and integration activities, calling on the emirate’s government and private sectors to strengthen cooperation with local and international research and academic institutions in order to develop a regulatory and legal environment that underpins R&A in Dubai.