Robotics is one such area, which many people think can pose threat to human jobs. Bots could be seen everywhere, from automatizing work in mega factories to performing daily household chores. For instance, after the bar tending robot, now we would be witnessing a machine taking the charge of a traffic cop.
Two robots in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, have taken up responsibility of a traffic cop. With the purpose of controlling the flow of vehicles, and helping pedestrians and drivers to safely cross the busy streets, two machines have been installed in areas with high traffic. Quite similar to traffic cop, the humanoid robot helps to manage the traffic problem faced by the commuters everyday and reduce the chaos and road accidents in the city with 10 million population.
President of the DRC’s National Commission for Road Safety, Vale Manga Wilma said that the installation of the robots is a step of innovation towards road safety. And these bots will help in managing the flow of vehicles, especially during the peak traffic hours and will also improve the road safety in the city of Kinshasa.
The robot traffic cop installed at the intersection of Triomphal and Lumumba, has red and green lights to manage the traffic and is eight feet tall and therefore, can be easily seen from far distance. Working day and night, these robots are powered by solar panels. The bot chest that can rotate have surveillance camera fitted in, to register the flow of the traffic. Their body is made of aluminum and stainless steel, so that they can stand straight in the city round the year high temperature.
The local engineers known as WITECH ONG, who designed the robot, have tried to fuse the functions performed by a traffic light and those performed by the human officers. The bots can similarly stop vehicles or allow others to go by raising or bending their arms. They are even programmed to talk, specifying the pedestrians when is it safe to cross the street. These would definitely give the traffic police a break from managing traffic in extreme hot summers and instead they can work on other areas that cannot me automatized as of now.
The traffic is a serious problem in almost every city, especially in the mega cities so deploying a 24-hour traffic bot will surely save transverse time for millions.
