At a busy intersection in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, a robot policeman goes to work – not as an action hero, but simply as a traffic controller. He can make polite comments to passing helmetless e-bike owners and continue to regulate traffic in sync with traffic lights.
Photo credit: Luca Florio/unsplash.com
The T2 police robot is built by local technology company Zhongkong Information. His height is 188 cm and weight is 98 kg. The machine is part of a pilot program to shift some of the duties of law enforcement officers to robots to police traffic. It uses cameras, radar and on-board computing systems to identify cyclists without helmets, e-bikes carrying passengers, vehicles violating markings and pedestrians crossing the road at a red light. China’s robots are becoming less and less limited to demonstrations and gradually starting to move towards practical tasks.
The robot can answer questions about driving directions, parking, traffic rules, etc. It also has an emergency communication function that allows you to contact the police. The robot hand, equipped with seven joints, can reproduce the standard hand gestures of traffic police and synchronize with traffic signals. SUPCON has installed 15 robots in Hangzhou since May, during which time they have issued more than 170,000 warnings and helped reduce the incidence of helmetless driving and crossing stop lines by 40%, according to the company.
The vehicles undergo thousands of hours of testing in tourist areas, school areas, business areas – during rush hours and in inclement weather. The developers assure that bright sunlight, rain and extreme temperatures will of course affect the device’s readings, but the accuracy of detecting violations is over 95%. The goal of the program is not to punish violations but to point them out before they become a habit. The robot works in fully autonomous mode from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., moving between designated locations at intersections without the need for remote control. The central platform allows police experts to track and control the robots. Currently, about 50 such robots are providing services in eight cities in three provinces in China, and by the end of this year, the number will be close to 200.
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