A clip featuring a human-like robot ‘police officer’ patrolling the streets of Shenzhen, China, has gone viral online.
These silver humanoid robots, dressed in neon yellow police vests, were deployed in late 2024 to patrol alongside human cops, and they have the ability to interact with people on the streets.
The robots are named PM01, and each one is around the size of a primary school child — standing at 1.38m tall, and weigh 40kg. Each robot is estimated to cost around 88k yuan (S$16k), and they’re the brainchild of Shenzhen-based startup company, Engine AI.
PM01 has not only attracted the attention of many for its Iron Man (Boy?)-like appearance, its movements are also super advanced. Touted as one of the most agile humanoid robots in the market, it moves and walks fluidly, and is even able to do a front flip.
On top of all that, the robots are equipped with a tech system which allows them to measure distance and navigate their surroundings. They can also process voice commands which allows them to follow the direction of human officers.
While some netizens are impressed by this development in technology, there are also a number who doubt the humanoid robot officers’ capabilities to perform their duties like an actual cop.
Others also brought up the topic of robots replacing humans in their jobs, and how “scary” the future might look like if “the robots take over”. In fact, there have been instances where AI robots were seen malfunctioning and barreling into people.
However, it has been reported by SCMP that the PM01 is now only “in limited use” within the Shenzhen police force. Their main purpose is not to replace jobs, but to aid the police officers with patrolling, ideally reducing their workload.