‘Roadeo’ traffic robot to launch in Pune soon

NPnews24Online PUNE:  The traffic world of Pune has seen major changes in 2019. Among this increased attention of the traffic police towards enforcing norms on city roads especially their recently launched mandatory helmet drive the same department is now also taking to a rather innovative method to maintain traffic flow and spread awareness about the task at hand.

Authorities will soon be introducing a robot named ‘Roadeo’ to trundle around city roads, functioning as a quasi-traffic policeman and cautioning commuters about traffic rules and offences.

Interestingly, Roadeo will be the first robot to be used by any traffic department across the entire country. And, if this pilot project turns out to be successful, there will be many more such prototypes that are likely to take to the streets in a similar fashion, somewhat reducing the burden on beleaguered traffic cops.

The concept is the brainchild of developers from SP Robotics Maker Lab, a city-based laboratory that trains people to learn about robotics and build tech themselves. Roadeo, in particular, has been made by six children from the city — namely, Aadi Kanchankar, Parth Kulkarni, Rachit Jain, Shourya Singh, Shruten Pande and Vinayak Krishna — who will share details of their experience at the public launch of this first robot this week. Their concept was propelled by the aim of helping out the traffic department and working out a way to reduce pressure on traffic police, who are already facing a staff shortage.

The robot consists of 16-inch LED display, which will show a ticker of traffic rules and other important messages — such as ‘Wear a helmet’, ‘Do not jump the signal’ and other rules. Roadeo’s hands have been engineered to move and show stop signs to vehicles. Besides this, the robot is equipped with a siren, skid-steering wheels and obstacle-detection sensors.

On the development of the robot, Deputy Commissioner of Police confirmed that the robot will be functional on January 15 and will be seen around main chowks of the city.