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Its eyes make hearts and stars, and they may wink at you as the Kiwibot roams streets across D.C.
Contrary to speculation, the robot that鈥檚 been captured on social media in recent days isn鈥檛 giving out parking tickets. Instead, it鈥檚 part of a pilot program that鈥檚 helping D.C.鈥檚 Department of Transportation keep track of sign and sidewalk infrastructure.
Kiwibot is used as a food-delivery service on Howard University鈥檚 campus, and Stephanie Dock, DDOT鈥檚 innovation branch manager, said that sparked a conversation about whether the robot would be able to collect data for the city鈥檚 sign inventory.
As part of a pilot program, the robot collected information about the city鈥檚 signage around a 1-mile segment of Georgia Avenue last fall. It鈥檚 also been used around Navy Yard in Southeast.
DDOT鈥檚 sign inventory is a list of where all of the city鈥檚 signs are and what they say, Dock said.
鈥淚t’s important that the stop sign be pointed in the right direction, and that the one-way street is marked,鈥� Dock said. 鈥淎nd also, if you’ve ever tried to park, you know that you want to know whether that is a place that you can park or cannot park at that particular time of day, and whether you have to pay.鈥�
The robot, which looks a like a cooler on wheels, has a few different sensors and radars that detect whether there鈥檚 something in front of it, so it doesn鈥檛 run into people nearby, Dock said.
It has a 鈥渂aseline sense鈥� of where signs are supposed to be based on DDOT鈥檚 existing inventory, Dock said, and the robots roll down sidewalks, taking photos of signs and sending them back to their teams.
The teams process the information the bot sends back.
鈥淚s this the sign that we thought was there? Has something changed from what was listed as being there? And if so, what?鈥� Dock said.
If the robot sees a sign that wasn鈥檛 there before, it gets added to the database. If there鈥檚 a missing sign, Dock said it gets flagged, and then the agency reviews whether it was removed or may have fallen down.
That could lead to a work order, and DDOT鈥檚 sign shop repairs it in a 鈥渢imely fashion,鈥� Dock said.
It鈥檚 all part of the $10,000 pilot project, which Dock said includes the robot and data-processing support for it.
鈥淭hings constantly change on our streets, and unless someone is out there seeing it, we don’t have a way of knowing,鈥� Dock said.
The robot adds an extra layer of tracking beyond a person walking around, which may have its limitations, Dock said.
鈥淎t the start of the pandemic, we had people crawling through street imagery, sign by sign, marking whether the data was correct, updating the signs,鈥� Dock said. 鈥淚 personally put hundreds of hours into that, and I can tell you, it’s a lot, and you may have missed a sign. You got distracted at the very end of the block.鈥�
During the pilot, the city used one robot, but the next step may bring 鈥渁 larger fleet collecting more data points in kind of robust fashion, so we would spread to more neighborhoods,” Dock said.
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