A humanoid robot ran a half marathon in Beijing yesterday and beat the world record. This shows how quickly Chinese companies are making progress in technology.
According to AFP, people lined the roads in Yizhuang, which is in the south of the city, to see the machines and their human opponents compete. Each group raced in its own lane to avoid accidents or crashes.
Some of the robots were quite quick and moved like great runners like Usain Bolt. Others were not as advanced.
According to official broadcaster CCTV, the winning humanoid, which had an autonomous navigation system and was running for Chinese smartphone maker Honour, finished the 21-kilometer (13-mile) route in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, or about 25 kilometers per hour.
That was much faster than the fastest human in the race on Sunday, and it also broke the men’s world record of 57:20 set by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo.
The outcome was a huge improvement over last year, when robot-runners fell over and over again and the best took more than two hours and 40 minutes to finish.
According to the organizers, the number of humanoid entries went up from about 20 last year to more than 100 this year. This shows that the field is becoming more popular.
“Pretty Cool”
Han Chenyu, a 25-year-old student who was watching the race from behind a safety barrier, barely had time to get out her phone and capture a picture of the robot that was in front of her.
She informed our reporter that she was excited about these kinds of technological advances and thought the event was “pretty cool.”
But she also said, “As someone who works for a living, I’m a little worried about it sometimes.” I think that technology is moving so quickly that it could start to have an effect on people’s professions, especially as artificial intelligence gets smarter.
In recent years, humanoid robots have become a familiar sight in China, both in the news and in public places.
Xie Lei, 41, watched the race with his family on Sunday. He stated that robots might “become part of our daily lives” in a few years and could be used for “things like housework, elderly companionship, or basic caregiving” or “dangerous jobs, even firefighting.”
The humanoid half marathon is meant to promote new ideas and make the technologies required to make and run these robots more well-known.
According to a research by a government body, investment in robotics and so-called “embodied AI” reached 73.5 billion yuan ($10.8 billion) in China in 2025. This shows how strong the business is.
“For thousands of years, people have been the most important beings on Earth. But now, look at the robots. “At least in this sport event, they’re already starting to beat us when it comes to autonomous navigation,” Xie remarked.
“On one hand, it does make you feel a little sad for people. But technology, especially in the last few years, has also brought us a lot of ideas.
About the Author
