BEIJING — Dozens of Chinese-made humanoid robots showed off their fast-improving athleticism and autonomous navigation skills as they whizzed past human runners in a half-marathon race in Beijing on Sunday, highlighting the sector’s rapid technical advances.
Subscribe to read this story ad-free
Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.
The race’s inaugural edition last year was riddled with mishaps, and most robots were unable to finish. Last year’s champion robot recorded a time of 2 hours 40 minutes, more than double the time of the human winner of the conventional race.
This year’s contrast was stark. Not only had the number of participating teams increased from 20 to more than 100, but several robot frontrunners were noticeably faster than professional athletes, beating the human winners by more than 10 minutes.
Unlike last year, nearly half of the robot entrants navigated the tougher terrain autonomously instead of being directed by remote control during the 21-km (13-mile) race. The robots and 12,000 men and women ran in parallel tracks to avoid collisions.
The winning robot, developed by Chinese smartphone brand Honor, finished the race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, several minutes faster than the half-marathon world record set by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon last month.
00:19
Robot faceplants during humanoid marathon prep
00:0000:00
Teams from Honor, a Huawei spin-off, took the three podium spots, all self-navigated and posting world-record-beating times. Du Xiaodi, an Honor engineer on the winning team, said its robot was in development for a year, fitted with legs 90 to 95 cm (35 to 37 inches) long to mimic elite human runners and liquid cooling technology used in its smartphones.
Du said the sector remained in a nascent phase, but he was confident humanoids would eventually reshape many industries, including manufacturing.
“Running faster may not seem meaningful at first, but it enables technology transfer, for example, into structural reliability and cooling, and eventually industrial applications,” Du said.
Robotics improvements
Spectators largely viewed the variety of humanoids of different sizes and gaits on display as evidence of China’s improvements in robotics.
“The humanoid robots’ running posture I saw was really quite impressive… considering that AI has only been developing for a short time, I’m already very impressed that it can achieve this level of performance,” said Chu Tianqi, a 23-year-old engineering student at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.
“The future will definitely be an AI era. If people don’t know how to use AI now, especially if some are still resistant to it, they will definitely become obsolete,” he said.
Another spectator, 11-year-old schoolboy Guo Yukun, said after watching the race, he was inspired to pursue a university degree in robotics in the future.
Guo said he takes regular classes in robotics theory and programming at his elite Beijing school, and is part of his school’s team for the International Olympiad in Informatics, a global programming competition for high schoolers.
Economically viable applications
While economically viable applications of humanoid robots mostly remain in a trial phase, the half-marathon’s showcasing of these machines’ physical prowess highlights their potential to reshape everything from dangerous jobs to battlefield combat.
However, Chinese robotics firms are still struggling to develop the AI software that would enable humanoids to match the efficiency of human factory workers.
Experts said the skills on display during the half-marathon, while entertaining, do not translate to the widespread commercialisation of humanoid robots in industrial settings, where manual dexterity, real-world perception and capabilities beyond small-scale, repetitive tasks are crucial.
China is seeking to become a global powerhouse in this frontier industry, and it has enacted a wide range of policies from subsidies to infrastructure projects to cultivate local firms.
The country’s most-watched TV show, the annual CCTV Spring Festival gala, in February showcased China’s push to dominate humanoid robots and the future of manufacturing.
That included a lengthy martial arts demonstration where over a dozen Unitree humanoids performed sophisticated fight sequences waving swords, poles and nunchucks in close proximity to human children performers.