SINGAPORE - The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Taiwanese electronics firm Delta Electronics have set up a joint laboratory to research and develop technologies for manufacturing and smart homes and offices.

The $45 million lab will work on cyber-physical systems: The use of sensors and advanced communication between electronics and devices or systems in the real world, also known as the Internet of Things.

It will focus on four areas: manufacturing, learning, living and commercialisation. For instance, it will look at ways in which driverless vehicles can be implemented in factories, or how to outfit buildings with green sensors so that temperature and lighting can be adjusted automatically based on how occupied they are.

The laboratory was opened on Thursday (June 16) by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam. It is located in NTU's Jurong campus and is supported by the National Research Foundation under the Corporate Laboratory@University Scheme.

NTU's president, Professor Bertil Andersson, said the NTU-Delta Corporate Lab, which is the fourth joint corporate laboratory that NTU has, was based on a successful partnership the both of them have had since 2014.

"When the Delta-NTU Corporate Lab is running at full capacity, it will have over 80 researchers and staff, of whom 30 will be NTU PhD students," said Prof Andersson. "They will be an invaluable source of local specialist talent trained to serve the industry and add value to our economy."

Delta's chairman, Mr Yancy Hai, said: "There are limitless applications in IoT that will transform current products and services, which (will lead) to explosive commercial growth in diverse sectors."