Curve Labs Launches The Embodied Agents Lab of Singapore

Introduction

Curve Labs has launched The Embodied Agents Lab of Singapore, a new working lab for embodied AI and robotics in Singapore. Built alongside Justin Baird and Siddharth Krishnan and hosted at SQ Collective, the lab brings builders together around a shared stack spanning simulation, control, hardware, and real-world testing.

For Curve Labs, this is also a natural extension of our work on empathic AI. We are interested in feeling machines: systems that do not just perceive and act, but can interpret context, respond with tact, and operate in ways that feel socially legible once intelligence leaves the screen and enters the physical world.

From Forum to Working Lab

The launch builds on momentum from the Open Robotics AI Forum, where Curve Labs first saw the depth of local interest around embodied AI. Justin Baird's robotics work was part of that earlier momentum, and what began as a fast-moving collaboration around demos, experiments, and builder conversations has now become a dedicated lab with space for recurring sessions and longer-horizon projects.

That continuity matters because the same questions that shaped our empathic AI research now show up in robotics with sharper edges. How should a machine read intent, uncertainty, hesitation, or trust? How should it behave when latency, embodiment, and real-world consequence are part of the loop? The lab gives us a place to map those questions from conversational intelligence into physical domains.

Early Signals

The pre-launch session immediately exceeded expectations. Attendance grew beyond the original plan, the session ran over time, and participants stayed well past the official close. People queued to try VR teleoperation, a robot in Singapore was controlled remotely from Hyderabad, and small groups broke into detailed discussions on kinematics, latency, interface design, and reliability in the real world.

Those are the exact problems that matter. The shift is not only toward better models; it is toward systems that can leave controlled demos and operate in the world. In that setting, feeling machines are not an abstract idea. They are systems that need to couple perception, control, and empathic reasoning tightly enough to work around people, not just near them.

What We Are Building

The Embodied Agents Lab of Singapore is not a classroom format. It is a working environment for people building across software, electronics, 3D printing, reinforcement learning, teleoperation, and hardware integration. Some participants will collaborate on shared systems. Others will push forward their own prototypes.

We see that work as part of a broader effort to bring empathic AI into physical domains. That means building machines that can combine simulation, control, and embodiment with better social timing, context sensitivity, and human-aware interaction. The goal is simple: get people onto a common stack, build together, and close the gap between a working demo and a system that can be trusted in practice.

Looking Ahead

We are grateful to Michael Huang and SQ Collective for backing the lab from the start and giving it a home in Singapore. Curve Labs will continue supporting this effort as it grows through sessions, demos, and community-built projects.

As the lab develops, we expect it to become one of the clearest places where our work on empathic AI meets the realities of robotics. The ambition is not only better agents, but better feeling machines: systems that can carry emotional intelligence, physical competence, and real-world usefulness in the same stack.

If you are working on embodied AI, robotics, or real-world agents, follow upcoming sessions via Luma.