Image via @Cstechbeat
In a first-of-its-kind half-marathon held in Beijing, 21 humanoid robots joined thousands of human runners in a public demo of China’s ambitions in robotics, reports The Wall Street Journal. Is this the future we’ve been waiting for?
The event was pitched as a display of the country’s latest developments in humanoid tech—but the results showed the field still has a long way to go.
The 13-mile race (21km) featured models like Tien Kung Ultra, a robot built by Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center (also known as X-Humanoid), a joint venture involving tech firms like UBTech and smartphone maker Xiaomi. Tien Kung Ultra stood out as the most capable bot on the course, finishing in 2 hours, 40 minutes, and 42 seconds—well within the 3.5-hour time limit set for the machines.
The rest of the robots? Not so lucky. Many struggled to maintain balance, follow the course, or even make it past the starting line. One robot, Shennong, lost control early and crashed into a fence, breaking apart. Another, Huanhuan, simply sat down mid-race and refused to go on (where’s the electrolytes yo?).
Here’s a video of the half marathon below:
Organizers staggered robot start times by a few minutes to prevent collisions. Developers had to train their bots to tackle slopes, turns, and varied terrain, all while keeping upright. Tien Kung Ultra reportedly swapped batteries three times and used sneaker soles to soften foot impacts (those robot knees won’t last forever). Unlike many bots that relied on remote controls, it used wireless tech to follow a human runner ahead of it.
It will be interesting to see how these Chinese humanoid robots fare against other major market leaders in the space, notably Tesla and its Optimus and Boston Dynamic’s Atlas, for example. The whole race just looked pretty weird seeing robots running alongside humans.
But Tesla’s Optimus (which uses the company’s vision-based Full Self-Driving tech) has been limited to a max speed of 5 mph (8 kph), allowing most people to outrun the robot if necessary, in the event it tries to overpower you and take over your life. As for Atlas, it also has a speed of about just under 6 mph (9 kph) so you should be able to run away as well if necessary. If Optimus were to try a half marathon at its max speed non-stop and without a battery change (which is unlikely at this point), it would finish in about 2 hours and 37 minutes.
A running robot is great, but ping me when these robots can wash dishes, do the laundry, mow the lawn, tend the BBQ and grab me a beer while I’m watching hockey on TV.
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