Hangzhou has deployed a team of 15 traffic management robots at West Lake tourist sites and surrounding roads in Zhejiang Province, making it the first city in the world to operate a coordinated robot traffic police team in live public conditions. The robots, named Hangjingzhixing, were deployed on the first day of China’s Labor Day holiday on May 1, a period of peak tourist traffic at one of the country’s most visited destinations.
While individual robots have previously been used for traffic management in China, the Hangzhou deployment represents the first instance of a purpose-built team operating together across multiple intersections in a real urban environment, according to the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.
Operational Capabilities
Each robot operates continuously for eight to nine hours daily and performs three primary functions: violation detection, traffic direction, and tourist assistance.
On violation detection, the robots use high-performance visual recognition algorithms to identify infractions in real time – including bicycles crossing stop lines, riders not wearing helmets, illegal passengers, and pedestrians entering roadways. Upon detecting a violation, the robot issues a verbal warning directly to the individual. If the behavior continues after three warnings, the incident is transmitted in real time to the Hangzhou Traffic Management Department for human follow-up.
For traffic direction, the robots are synchronized with intersection signal control systems at 0.001-second intervals and carry a gesture database compliant with Chinese Ministry of Public Security standards. They can execute eight traffic direction commands including straight ahead, stop, and left turn.
Tourists can interact with the robots directly by pressing a button and asking questions verbally, receiving real-time traffic updates and location information through audio and on-screen display.
From Event Pilots to Permanent Deployment
The Hangzhou team was not launched without preparation. The robots were piloted over two months at the West Lake Half Marathon and the Hangzhou Women’s Half Marathon, accumulating operational experience in high-density crowd conditions before their public debut during the Labor Day holiday.
The staged rollout – from controlled event environments to permanent urban deployment – reflects a broader pattern in China’s approach to public robotics deployment, where sporting events and tourism periods serve as real-world testing grounds before integration into routine operations.
A source from the Hangzhou Public Security Bureau Traffic Management Department indicated that the robot team is designed to handle routine and repetitive enforcement tasks, freeing human officers to concentrate on accident response, major violations, and road safety inspections. Major Chinese cities are expected to evaluate similar deployments following Hangzhou’s lead.
