A humanoid robot sprints to victory in Beijing, beating the human half-marathon world record
BEIJING (AP) — A humanoid robot wins an award half marathon race Robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological breakthroughs.
The winner, from Chinese smartphone maker Honor, completed the 21-kilometer (13-mile) race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, according to a WeChat post from the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Zone, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race started.
This was faster than world record holder Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, who completed the same distance in around 57 minutes at the Lisbon road race in March.
The robot’s performance marked a significant improvement over last year’s inaugural race, when the winning robot completed the race in 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds.
However, the competition, which was held in conjunction with a human race, was not without its glitches; One robot crashed at the starting line and the other crashed into the barrier.
Du Xiaodi, Honor’s test development engineer, said his team was pleased with the results. Du said the robot design is modeled after extraordinary human athletes with legs about 95 centimeters (about 37 inches) long and is equipped with what he calls a powerful liquid cooling system that was largely developed in-house.
“Looking ahead, some of these technologies can be transferred to other areas. For example, structural reliability and liquid cooling technology can be applied in future industrial scenarios,” he said.
While it will still take time for humanoid robots to be widely commercialized, audiences are already fascinated by them. Sun Zhigang, who was in the audience last year, watched Sunday’s race with his son.
“I feel huge changes this year,” Sun said. “For the first time, robots have surpassed humans, and it’s something I never imagined.”
Wang Wen, who came with his family, said robots stole much of the attention from human runners at the event.
“The speed of robots far exceeds that of humans,” he said. “This could signal the beginning of a new era.”
Beijing E-Town said about 40 percent of the robots navigate the course autonomously, while the others are controlled remotely.
State media outlet Global Times reported that Honor’s separate, remote-controlled robot was the first to cross the finish line in 48 minutes, 19 seconds. However, it was stated that the winner used autonomous navigation and won the championship according to the weighted scoring rules of the event.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that the runners-up, also from Honor and using autonomous navigation, completed the race in approximately 51 minutes and 53 minutes respectively. CCTV added that a robot acts as a traffic warden, directing participants with its arm movements and voice.
China has technology has become a field of competition An agreement with the United States that has national security implications. Beijing’s latest situation five year plan He vows to “target the frontiers of science and technology.” Accelerating the development of products such as humanoid robots and their applications is part of the 2026-2030 plan for the world’s second-largest economy.
London-based technology research and advisory group Omdia recently ranked three Chinese companies (AGIBOT, Unitree Robotics and UBTech Robotics Corp.) as the only first-tier vendors in its global assessment of shipment numbers for general-purpose embodied products. smart robots.
All shipped more than 1,000 robots last year, while the top two companies shipped more than 5,000 units, the report said.
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Associated Press video producer Liu Zheng in Beijing contributed to this report.
