BEIJING (AP) — A humanoid robot that won the half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than a human world record in a demonstration of China’s technological leap.
According to a WeChat post from the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race started, the winner from Chinese smartphone maker Honor completed the 21-kilometer (13-mile) race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds.
That was faster than the human world record holder Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, who completed the same distance in about 57 minutes at the Lisbon Road Race in March.
The robot’s performance marked a significant step forward from last year’s inaugural race, in which the winning robot finished in 2 hours 40 minutes 42 seconds.
But the competition, which was held alongside the human race, was not without hiccups – one robot went flat on the start line, another crashed into an obstacle.
Honor’s test development engineer Du Xiaodi said his team was pleased with the results. Du said its robot design was modeled on the best human athletes, with long legs of about 95 centimeters (about 37 inches), and was equipped with a powerful liquid-cooling system, which 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.
Although it would still take time for humanoid robots to achieve widespread commercialization, audiences were impressed by the robots. Sun Jigang, who came to the audience last year, watched Sunday’s race with his son.
“I feel a big change this year,” Surya said. “This is the first time a robot has surpassed a human, and it’s something I never imagined.”
Wang Wen, who was accompanied by his family, said the robot seemed to steal much of the spotlight from the human runners in the event.
“Robots are faster than humans,” he said. “This could signal the arrival of a new era.”
Beijing E-Town said about 40% of the robots navigated the course autonomously, while the others were controlled remotely.
State media outlet Global Times reported that a separate, remote-controlled robot from Honor was the first to cross the finish line in 48 minutes and 19 seconds. But it is said that the winner used autonomous navigation and received the championship under the event’s weighted scoring rules.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that the runner-up, who was also from Honor and used autonomous navigation, finished the race in about 51 minutes and 53 minutes, respectively. A robot served as a traffic officer to direct participants with its hand gestures and voice, CCTV added.
In China, technology has developed into an area of competition with the US, with national security implications. Beijing’s latest five-year plan promises 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 Corporation – as first-tier vendors in its global assessment for shipment numbers of general-purpose embodied intelligent robots.
All of them shipped more than 1,000 units of the robot last year, with the first two companies shipping more than 5,000 units, the report said.
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Associated Press video producer Liu Zheng in Beijing contributed to this report.
