THE world was in the thick of a pandemic when Kelvin Wee, chief executive of Taiwan-listed Patec Precision Industry, received an enquiry from security organisation Certis Cisco.

Certis was trying to build a security robot, but things were not working out with its vendors. They struggled to find the sweet spot where performance, reliability and pricing met. Could Patec help?

The opportunity was intriguing for Wee, who spent most of his life working for the Singapore-based precision-engineering company founded by his father. Building robots was not in the ordinary course of business, but Certis’ interest in deploying the technology gave him an inkling that this industry might eventually be critical.