The $15,000, solar-powered bots were installed in June 2013 and were engineered by a team of local engineers to withstand the country's sweltering heat. So far they have been deemed a complete success. Their arms act as traffic signals, while their chests display whether it is safe for walkers to cross the street. A speaker also says whether it is safe to cross. Surveillance cameras are also mounted in the shoulders in case anyone attempts to disobey the traffic automaton's will. "With the robots' policemen intelligence, the road safety in Kinshasa becomes very easy," said Vale Manga Wilma, president of the DRC's National Commission for Road Safety to CNN.
While giant, humanoid traffic signal robots sound like something more likely to come out of Japan than the Democratic Republic of Congo, they merge the functions of human traffic officers and signal lights which means more cops patrolling the streets
