HEFEI, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- "For your safety, please ride bicycles in the non-motorized lane," a voice called out to a cyclist veering into the motor vehicle lane at a busy intersection in Wuhu City, east China's Anhui Province.
The warning, however, came not from a human traffic officer, but from a humanoid robot standing upright on a safety island.
Donning a police uniform, a reflective vest and a white cap, the robot officer -- identified by the badge number "Intelligent Police Unit R001" -- looks remarkably human from a distance. Up close, its metallic sleekness and futuristic demeanor have made it a local celebrity, with pedestrians frequently pausing to snap photos of the cyberpunk scene.
"It is a new colleague capable of assisting us effectively," said Jiang Zihao, a traffic police officer in Wuhu.
According to Jiang, "Intelligent Police Unit R001," an AI-enabled traffic policing robot, is integrated with the city's traffic signal system. It can execute standard traffic command gestures synchronized with changing lights.
Equipped with high-definition cameras and an intelligent voice-broadcasting system, the robot uses large-model algorithms to autonomously identify traffic violations by non-motorized vehicles and pedestrians and deliver on-site warnings.
In addition to stationary duty, the robot is mobile, capable of navigating independently to designated locations on command. Its capabilities also include identifying illegal parking and conducting real-time road monitoring.
"The robot can work around the clock," Jiang said, noting that it is expected to ease the workload of the police, especially during peak hours or in extreme weather conditions.
This "RoboCop" is the latest addition to China's growing fleet of AI-powered traffic assistants.
Last year, several Chinese cities began integrating robotic officers into daily policing. In June, the southwestern city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province deployed a team of robot police officers, including quadruped robots, wheeled robots and humanoid robots, to patrol the streets alongside human counterparts.
In December, an AI-powered traffic policing robot was also put on duty in Hangzhou, in east China's Zhejiang Province.
The deployment of these robots underscores China's broader push to bring embodied intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies to real-world applications.
A report from the Development Research Center of the State Council projects that the market scale of China's burgeoning embodied intelligence industry will reach 400 billion yuan (about 57.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2030 and exceed 1 trillion yuan in 2035.
"Only by bringing products into real-life scenarios and collecting real operational data can we achieve rapid iteration," said Zhang Guibing, general manager of AiMOGA Robotics, the manufacturer of "Intelligent Police Unit R001."
Zhang added that the company's robots had already been deployed in more than 100 scenarios, including reception, security patrols and public services. ■
