DEEP Robotics puts DR02 humanoids on Hangzhou traffic duty in the rain, without publishing results

DEEP Robotics, the Hangzhou maker of quadruped and humanoid robots, tested a batch of its DR02 humanoids on traffic and visitor duty in the city’s Xihu District in early October 2026, during the National Day holiday, the company said in a release dated October 8. The robots worked intersections on Zheda Road and West Wenyi Road in Lingyin Subdistrict and Xixi National Wetland Park through days of continuous rain.

Why it matters: rain keeps most humanoids indoors, and the DR02’s IP66 rating is the specification being tested. The company has published no figures on accuracy, uptime or cost, and has not said how many robots took part.

What did the DR02 robots do in Hangzhou?

Three jobs, according to the release and Xinhua’s account. At intersections, they directed traffic and helped keep order. At peak hours, they watched for e-bike riders without helmets, overloaded e-bikes, pedestrians crossing outside the lines and vehicles stopped past the stop line, and gave spoken reminders. At the wetland park and scenic-area entrances, they answered visitors’ questions in several languages about routes, transport and traffic restrictions. DEEP Robotics says the robots moved through intersections on their own, avoiding pedestrians and vehicles and adjusting their position and hand signals.

The release quotes an unnamed member of on-site staff: with repetitive advisory work handed to the robots, staff could spend more effort on accident handling and enforcement against serious violations. Neither the release nor Xinhua names a police or city partner.

An earlier local report shows the set-up. On October 6, Dushi Kuaibao, via Hangzhou.com, described a single DR02 at the Shuguang Road No. 1 intersection in the West Lake scenic area, where traffic police were already on duty. It arrived in two crates and needed about 30 minutes of debugging before it walked out, with a DEEP Robotics engineer on hand. The report quoted the robot telling a pedestrian: “You have crossed the line, please step back.”

How does this compare with Hangzhou’s robot traffic squad?

It is smaller and less documented. Over the May Day holiday in 2026, Hangzhou put 15 robots at key intersections, including in the West Lake area, working 8 to 9 hours a day, eWEEK reported, citing state media. The Straits Times, citing Hangzhou Daily, reported 11,897 warnings issued in three days. The maker was not named. That deployment published a count; DEEP’s trial has not.

What DEEP adds is the weather case. Xinhua says the tests focused on continuous operation in rain and produced data for product improvements, but gives no numbers. Still unpublished: how many hours the robots ran, how many violations they flagged correctly or wrongly, how much human supervision they needed and what a city would pay. DEEP says it will keep testing in traffic management, public services and urban governance. The company has also been named among Chinese robot makers preparing listings, covered in our report on tighter IPO scrutiny.