This Humans vs. Robots Half-Marathon Didn’t Go Well… For Humans

BEIJING, April 19 (Reuters) – Dozens of Chinese-made humanoid robots showed off their rapidly improving athleticism and autonomous navigation skills as they raced past human runners in a half-marathon race in Beijing on Sunday, highlighting the industry’s rapid technical advances.

Last year, the first race of the race was full of mishaps and most robots were unable to complete the race. Last year’s champion robot recorded a time of 2 hours and 40 minutes; This was more than twice as long as the human winner of the traditional race.

This year’s contrast was stark. Not only did the number of participating teams grow from 20 to over 100, but several leading robots were noticeably faster than professional athletes, beating the human winners by more than 10 minutes.

Unlike last year, nearly half of those competing with the robot navigated the more challenging terrain autonomously rather than being guided by remote control during the 21 km (13 mi) race. The robots and 12,000 men and women ran on parallel paths to avoid collisions.

The winning robot, developed by Chinese smartphone brand Honor, completed the race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds; This was several minutes faster than the half marathon world record set by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon last month.

Teams from Honor, a spinoff of Huawei, took three podium places; all self-steered and recorded world record breaking times. Du Xiaodi, the Honors engineer on the winning team, said his robot, which has legs 90 to 95 cm (35 to 37 inches) long and the liquid cooling technology used in smartphones to mimic elite human runners, has been in development for a year.

Du said the industry remains in a nascent phase, but he is confident that humanoids will eventually reshape many industries, including manufacturing.

“Running faster may not seem meaningful at first, but it enables technology transfer to, for example, structural reliability and cooling and ultimately industrial applications,” Du said.

Audiences largely viewed the variety of humanoids of different sizes and gaits on display as evidence of China’s advances in robotics.

“The working posture of the humanoid robots I saw was actually quite impressive… Considering that artificial intelligence has only been developing for a short time, I am 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 era of artificial intelligence. If people don’t know how to use AI now, it will definitely become obsolete, especially if some are still resistant to it,” he said.

Another spectator, 11-year-old student Guo Yukun, said he was inspired to pursue a college degree in robotics in the future after watching the race.

Guo said he regularly took robotics theory and programming classes at the elite Beijing school and was part of his school’s team for the International Informatics Olympiad, a global programming competition for high school students.

ECONOMICALLY APPLICABLE APPLICATIONS

While economically viable applications of humanoid robots remain mostly in the experimental phase, showcasing the physical capabilities of these machines in the half marathon highlights their potential to reshape everything from hazardous work to battlefield combat.

But Chinese robotics companies are still struggling to develop artificial intelligence software that will enable humanoid robots to achieve the productivity of factory workers.

Although the skills demonstrated during the half-marathon are entertaining, they do not translate into widespread commercialization of humanoid robots in industrial settings where dexterity, real-world perception and abilities beyond small-scale, repetitive tasks are crucial, experts said.

China aims to become a global powerhouse in this pioneering industry and has introduced a wide range of policies, from subsidies to infrastructure projects, to nurture local firms.

The annual CCTV Spring Festival premiere, the country’s most-watched TV show, in February showcased China’s push to dominate humanoid robots and the future of manufacturing.

This included a lengthy martial arts demonstration in which more than a dozen Unitree humanoids performed sophisticated fighting scenes by wielding swords, poles, and nunchucks in close proximity to human child performers.