Robo cop has the ability to regulate Hyderabad traffic

Hyderabad: It was quite a showstopper at the Deccan College of Engineering & Technology in May, and in a year’s time and with huge investment, it can literally stop the traffic in Hyderabad.

This humanoid, called Robo, developed as a final year college project, is meant to assist traffic cops stop vehicles as the signal turns red, alert them on the yellow light and allow them to proceed on the green.

Mohammed Thaimur Abbas, Mohammed Mubashir Ali Khan and Mohammed Naser Fouzan Siddiqui, electronics and communication engineering students, wanted to make “a butler, who could move the cups around, but ended up assembling an assistant for traffic cops instead”.

Thaimur says, “Robots can’t replace cops. That’s not even our intention. But a cop can’t be manning the roads all the time, like when he steps out for lunch. That’s where this bot can help.” Talking about how it works, the team’s mentor and their college senior Abdul Rahman Janoo, says, “It works on both automatic and manual mode. In the manual mode, it works through Bluetooth of Android phones. It has a sensor chip which can read the nature of light from the traffic signal and reacts accordingly.”

In the future, this bot will also track challans as it has an in-built camera and will operate through the Web.

Meanwhile, Robo is grabbing attention wherever it is going. Yes, it walks, moves its limbs, greets you with “hi” and “bye”, shakes hands and might talk in the days ahead.

The invigilator of the final year project had even invited these students to give a demonstration of the humanoid, which cost the team '16,000, in her college.