Bengaluru schoolkids build robot to beat traffic blues

BENGALURU: A road-safety robot developed by a group of school students aims to make pedestrians in the country feel safe and ease the burden of traffic police.
Roadeo, touted to be the first-of-its-kind in the country, caught the attention of many during the inauguration of the 30th national road safety week (February 4-10) here on Monday.

The robot, a brainchild of Chennai-based Ed-Tech startup SP Robotics Maker Lab, was developed by 14 school students aged 9 to 14 in about three months at an estimated cost of Rs 3-4 lakh. Eight of the 14 students are from Bengaluru, while others hail from Chennai and Hyderabad.

“We were mainly involved in programming and designing of this robot as well as preparation of road-safety awareness messages,” said Nirvana Dongre, a class 5 student at SFS Academy, Hebbagodi in Electronics City. “This will help pedestrians, especially children, to cross roads safely. It can also be integrated with traffic signals or operated manually through Wi-Fi,” she added.

The robot has two hands to interact with the people, show traffic signs and designed to be child-friendly. Roadeo’s chest displays awareness messages such as “wear a helmet” and “do not jump the signal”.

Bharath V, brand manager, SP Robotics Maker Lab, said they are in talks with city traffic police to introduce these robots to create awareness, particularly among schoolchildren. “This is the country’s first road safety robot deployed to help pedestrians to cross roads safely. We believe these robots will help reduce the human effort involved in day-to-day traffic management,” he said. Saksham Tiku, a class 4 student at Brigade School, JP Nagar, said, “This is a token of appreciation to traffic police, who are struggling to manage the chaotic city traffic. This can be placed in front of the zebra crossing at various junctions when the traffic signal turns red and ensures a safe passage for pedestrians. It can also register cases of motorists violating traffic rules.”

P Harishekaran, additional commissioner of police (traffic) said, “It’s still in the initial stage. We haven’t yet decided to deploy robots on roads because of the traffic congestion. The concept is yet to become popular even in foreign cities.”