Pune will become India’s first city to introduce a robot to handle traffic around the city as well as continuously display traffic rules and offences on its 16-inch display, the Pune Mirror reports.

According to the deputy commissioner of police (DCP Traffic) Tejaswi Satpute the quasi-traffic policeman, ‘Roadeo’ will be introduced on 15 January and can be seen handling traffic at the main chowks of the city.

A first-of-its-kind in India, If the pilot project is a success, the future will see various more prototypes on the streets in a similar fashion, and reduce the burden on hard-pressed traffic cops.

The concept is a brainchild of Pune-based laboratory, SP Robotics Maker Labs, which trains people to learn Robotics and build tech. The robot was created with an aim to help out the traffic department and find a way to reduce pressure on the short-staffed traffic police.

Six children from Pune- Aadi Kanchankar, Parth Kulkarni, Rachit Jain, Shourya Singh, Shruten Pande and Vinayak Krishna built the Roadeo. They will be sharing details of their experience during the public launch of the robot this week.

The robot will use its 16-inch LED display to show various traffic rules and other vital messages like ‘Wear a helmet’, ‘do not jump the signal’, etc. The hands of the Robot has been engineered to move and display signs of stop to vehicles. Further, the robot also includes a siren, obstacle sensors and skid-steering wheels.

Head, SP Robotics Maker Lab, Sandeep Gautam said, “The robot was built over a couple of months last year by the children, who are from Classes VII and VIII. They worked well with a team in Chennai. Roadeo is a multi-functional robot that has been gifted by our team to the traffic department. We will make more of these if the pilot project works well and there is a demand witnessed.”