A 178-centimetre colleague joins the marathon police

Among the traffic officers managing 36,000 runners at Sunday's Hangzhou Marathon — chosen from more than 300,000 applicants — was a new recruit standing 178 centimetres tall: Hangxing No. 2, a humanoid robot built by Hangzhou-based DEEP Robotics with local traffic authorities. Based on the company's DR02 platform, sealed against dust and heavy rain, it patrolled intersections with human officers, monitored crossings, warned of violations, answered runners' questions and performed standard traffic gestures while broadcasting safety advice. The deployment is a working test of a simple idea: fixed cameras cannot walk to where they are needed, but a mobile colleague can.

SDG 11 · Sustainable cities and communities — Mechanism: tech innovation