Sun-powered robots could end rush hour traffic chaos thanks to a scheme poised to go live this week.

The pilot site – an eight robot intersection on Plantation Road, Lotus River, Cape Town will begin operating on October 1 and will run for a three month period.

The objective of this pilot is firstly to maintain normal operation during power outages and to determine to what extent traffic intersections of this nature can be run without the use of Eskom Power.

Barry Bredenkamp, Operations Manager for the National Energy Efficiency Agency, which is in charge of making South Africa more energy efficient, said that the new technologies being evaluated in traffic signalling applications had a number of benefits for road users and electricity consumers alike.

“These robots are incredibly exciting for South Africans. They could end the miserable frustration of rush hour traffic jams during power cuts, and reduce the substantial demand robots place on the National Energy Grid.

“Besides the obvious benefits for motorists, being solar powered means the robots are more environmentally friendly, and place less pressure on the National Grid,” he added.

Reinhardt Hanel, representing MagCode SA (Pty) Ltd, the Cape Town based company implementing the project with the CEF (Pty) Ltd is confident the project will be a success.

He said: “Everyone who lives in a South African city will be familiar with the Chaos caused by non-functioning robots during power cuts. Solar technology is advancing very quickly, and there should be no reason why it will not soon be possible to run robots from electricity harvested off the sun.”

The Plantation Road site was chosen with input and support from the local Cape Town Council officials.

The results will be independently evaluated to provide a basis for recommendations on the way forward. The pilot will also provide an opportunity to address practical issues such as theft prevention and ease of maintenance.

The company has already built a mobile rig with which it can demonstrate the benefits of the system to other municipalities and local administrations in the hope that they will start investing in the technology.