Robocops help patrol Shenzhen station

Local police on Wednesday activated 20 automated police robots, or "robocops" of different shapes and functions, at Shenzhen North Railway Station in Guangdong province to help safeguard passengers during the Spring Festival travel rush.

Yu Yang, a police officer at the station, said the human officers' workload has been heavy in recent days as transportation volume before the biggest holiday of the year is extreme, and these robots can help relieve the workload. The station's data shows some 776,000 passengers have departed from the station over the last six days.

Based on facial recognition technology, the robocops can sweep through the station to search for suspects among a large flow of people and report to a command center once discovered.