Story 2014-03-21 3GP Street Light Robots of Kinshasa

Street Light Robots of Kinshasa

by
in robotics on (#3GP)
story imageWe're not used to thinking of Africa as a hotbed of technological innovation, but times change and Africans need to find solutions to problems too. But Kinshasa's streetlight street light robots show the mirth the Congolese are able to apply to technical challenges.

Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , has legendarily bad traffic problems. But the government has installed at one particularly bad intersection, two humanoid street light figures. They stand 8 foot tall, made of stainless steel and aluminium, and powered by solar panel. Featuring green and red lights, Kinshasa's robot cops are designed to merge some of the functions of human officers and traffic lights. The anthropomorphic robots can raise or bend their arms to stop passing vehicles or let others pass, and are also programmed to speak, indicating to pedestrians when they can cross the road. The street light robots are equipped with rotating chests and surveillance cameras that record the flow of vehicles.

Locally designed and built, these two robots are just the beginning: more are planned.
Reply 5 comments

the next thing (Score: 3, Funny)

by rocks@pipedot.org on 2014-03-21 12:16 (#QY)

will be reading some article about how these robots will have algorithms for composing music to accompany the emotions of drivers who have gotten angry for having to wait at the intersections...

Re: the next thing RoboCop ? (Score: 1)

by myself@pipedot.org on 2014-03-21 21:17 (#RC)

Will it will notify Robo Cop about angry drivers?

North Korean Traffic Girls (Score: 2, Interesting)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2014-03-21 21:08 (#RB)

Stainless version of the north Korean traffic girls ?

Watch out ... (Score: 1)

by danieldvorkin@pipedot.org on 2014-03-21 23:12 (#RF)

... when they start saying things like "By your command."

Slashdot just posted this article a full year later (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2015-03-06 10:27 (#4CV1)