Lead image for China deploys robot cops on traffic duty.
It 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.
But at a busy intersection in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, the 1.88-m (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 98-kg (216-pound) 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 centre 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 synchronised 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.