Robo semi-Traffic cop
He is not quite the “RoboCop” of the 1987 movie: no gun, no power to arrest and wheels rather than the Hollywood cyborg’s mechanical stride. At a busy intersection in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, the 6-foot-2-inch robot can spot a helmetless e-bike rider, issue a polite warning and swing its mechanical arms in sync with traffic lights. Developed by local technology firm SUPCON Information, the T2 robot is part of a pilot aimed at handing some of police officers’ most repetitive traffic-control duties to machines. The robocop uses cameras, radar and onboard computing to identify riders without helmets, e-bikes carrying passengers, vehicles stopping over marked lines and pedestrians crossing against signals, SUPCON’s intelligent unmanned systems innovation center head Cao Hui said in an interview. The traffic robots represent a broader Chinese industry push to move machines beyond exhibition-floor acrobatics and showroom greetings into practical jobs.
The robots can also answer questions about directions, parking and traffic rules, while an emergency function connects users with local police. Their seven-jointed arms reproduce standard traffic-police gestures synchronized with the signals, Cao said. SUPCON has deployed 15 robots in Hangzhou since May. The company says they have issued more than 170,000 warnings and helped reduce monthly cases of helmetless riding and vehicles crossing stop lines by more than 40%. Hangzhou’s traffic police did not respond to a request for comment, and Reuters could not independently verify the figures.
The company has tested the machines for thousands of hours in tourist areas, school zones, business districts, rush-hour traffic and poor weather, Cao said. Cameras and radar can still be affected by strong sunlight, rain and temperature extremes, though SUPCON says its violation-recognition accuracy exceeds 95%. The aim, Cao said, is to replace punishment after a violation with a timely reminder before behavior becomes habitual. “It doesn’t get tired,” he said of the robot. “It can work steadily for long periods.” Cao said the robots operate autonomously from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., moving between pre-set positions at intersections without remote control. A central platform allows traffic-police teams to monitor and dispatch them. SUPCON says nearly 50 such robots are operating across about eight cities in three Chinese provinces, and it expects deployments to approach 200 by year-end.
Traffic cop tests
Paddy was patiently waiting and watching the traffic cop at a busy intersection. The cop stopped the flow of all traffic and shouted, ‘Okay, pedestrians.’ When everyone had safely crossed the street, he would allow traffic to resume.
The officer had done this several times, and Paddy still stood on the sidewalk.
After the cop had shouted, ‘Pedestrians!’ for the tenth time, Paddy went over to him and said,
‘Is it not about time ye let the Catholics across?’
What was the name of Russia’s first female traffic cop?
Ivana Pulyova.
I took a detour on the way home yesterday. It took me through 8 traffic circles,
but it got me where I was going, in a roundabout way.
A traffic cop went out of his way to leave a note under my car’s wiper to let me know I had positioned my car correctly.
It said, “parking fine.” So that was nice.
August 21st Birthdays
1975 – Alicia Witt, 1950 – Loretta Devine, 1990 – Hayden Panettiere, 1941 – Jackie DeShannon
1938 – Kenny Rogers, 1936 – Wilt Chamberlain, 1987 – Usain Boldt, 1973 – Sergey Brin