Dozens of humanoid robots manufactured in China showcased their rapid development and autonomous navigation abilities as they passed through lanes of human runners in a Beijing half-marathon this Sunday.
The inaugural edition of the race last year was filled with setbacks, and most robots could not finish. The champion robot of the previous year recorded a time of 2 hours and 40 minutes, more than double the time of the winning human in the conventional race.
The contrast this year was striking. In addition to the number of participating teams increasing from 20 to more than 100, several robots at the front were visibly faster than professional athletes, beating humans by more than 10 minutes.
Unlike last year, nearly half of the participating robots completed the tougher terrain autonomously, rather than being remotely controlled during the 21-kilometer race. The robots and 12,000 men and women ran on parallel trails to avoid collisions.
The winning robot, developed by the Chinese smartphone brand Honor, finished the race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, several minutes faster than the world half-marathon record set by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon last month.
The Honor teams, a subsidiary of Huawei, occupied the three podium spots, all with autonomous navigation and with times that beat the world record. Du Xiaodi, an engineer from Honor on the winning team, said that his robot had been in development for a year, equipped with legs 90 to 95 centimeters long to imitate elite human runners and liquid cooling technology used in its smartphones.
Du said the sector remains in an early stage, but he was confident that humanoids will eventually reshape many sectors, including manufacturing.
“Running faster may not seem significant at first, but it enables technology transfer, for example, to structural reliability and cooling and, ultimately, to industrial applications,” said Du.
Improvements in Robotics
Spectators viewed the variety of humanoids of different sizes and running paces on display as evidence of China’s advances in robotics.
“The running posture of the humanoid robots I saw was really impressive… considering AI has been developed for only a short time, I am already very impressed by the fact that it can reach this level of performance,” said Chu Tianqi, a 23-year-old engineering student at the 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 Guo Yukun, said that after watching the race, he was inspired to pursue a university degree in robotics in the future.
Guo said he has regular theory and programming robotics classes at his elite school in Beijing and is part of his school’s team for the International Olympiad in Informatics, a global programming competition for high school students.
Economically Viable Applications
Although the economically viable applications of humanoid robots remain, for the most part, in the testing phase, the half marathon that showcased the machines’ feats highlighted their potential to reshape everything from dangerous work to battlefield combat.
Nevertheless, Chinese robotics companies are still struggling to develop AI software that would enable humanoids to match the efficiency of human factory workers.
Experts said that the abilities demonstrated during the half marathon, though entertaining, do not translate into broad commercialization of humanoid robots in industrial settings, where manual dexterity, real-world perception, and capabilities beyond repetitive and small-scale tasks are crucial.
China is aiming to become a global power in this frontier sector and has adopted a wide range of policies, from subsidies to infrastructure projects, to cultivate local companies.
The country’s most-watched TV program, CCTV’s annual Spring Festival Gala, in February, showed China’s effort to master humanoid robots and the future of manufacturing.
This included a long martial arts demonstration, in which more than a dozen Unitree humanoids performed sophisticated sequences of fighting, brandishing swords, staffs and nunchucks close to human children.
