(A column highlighting scientific, technological, engineering and design innovation in Africa)
Engineers at the Higher Institute of Applied Techniques in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, developed humanoid robots to direct the city’s choking vehicle and pedestrian traffic 24 hours a day.
The team was led by Isaie Thérèse, an inventor of the robot and an engineer at institute, known by its French acronym, ISTA ((Institut Supérieur des Techniques Appliquées).
With a population of some 10 million, Kinshasa, the country’s sprawling capital, experiences a high number of road accidents, particularly at rush hour.
The solar-powered robots stand eight feet tall and carry out the functions of both human officers and traffic lights. They 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.
Dressed in weatherproof aluminum and stainless steel armor and sporting the trademark sunglasses of Kinshasa’s human policemen, they are equipped with four cameras that record traffic flow and transmit the information to a control center. The center analyzes the data and processes tickets for traffic violations.
“Our robot is a humanoid, we have taken the form of a human, it’s a design quality that copies the style of a real policeman, because our policeman really like sunglasses, so the sun does not damage their eyes, that’s why we have hidden the robot’s eyes with sunglasses, like a real policeman,” Thérèse is quoted as saying in a local press report.
Two of the robots are already in use at the intersection of Boulevard Triomphal and Huileries Avenue, located along the axis of Patrick Lumumba Boulevard, and the rush hour chaos there is already easing, local residents report.
“If a driver says that he is not going to respect the robot because it’s just a machine, the robot is going to take that and there will be a ticket for him. We are a poor country and our government is looking for money. And I will tell you that with the roads the government has built, it needs to recover its money,” Thérèse said.
She has called on the government to support her initiative and install the traffic robots on more roads in the city.
