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What simply occurred? It seems that one factor humanoid robots nonetheless cannot do higher than their human counterparts is long-distance working. This truth was illustrated throughout a half-marathon in Beijing, China, over the weekend, when a lot of the competing robots fell over, fell aside, or didn’t finsih.
The world’s first people vs. robotic half-marathon in China noticed 21 humanoid machines working alongside their operators within the 13-mile race, during which greater than 12,000 individuals took half – the robots and human rivals ran in separate lanes.
The humanoid robotic half-marathon in Beijing simply began! pic.twitter.com/8vr2nXQwuR
– The Humanoid Hub (@TheHumanoidHub) April 19, 2025
China had positioned the occasion as a approach of displaying off its developments within the space of robotics, but it surely wasn’t precisely a powerful success in that division. Bloomberg stories that one of many robots fell on the beginning line. One other’s head fell off and rolled round on the ground. And one collapsed and broke into items.
Maybe essentially the most telling statistic is that out of the 21 robots that took half within the race, solely 4 managed to finish the total 13 miles. The quickest robotic, a five-foot-ten-inch machine referred to as Tiangong Extremely, crossed the end line in two hours and 40 minutes, whereas the three different bots who completed took greater than three hours. For comparability, the human winner completed the race in a single hour, 2 minutes, and 36 seconds.
Tiangong robotic received the Beijing half marathon with a time of two hours 40 minutes – greater than twice the time of the boys’s race winner.
The robotic is constructed by the Beijing Humanoid Robotic Innovation Middle. https://t.co/0QGcEOeTpp pic.twitter.com/dVnYx2uZ5A
– The Humanoid Hub (@TheHumanoidHub) April 19, 2025
Regardless of being the quickest among the many robotic runners, Tiangong Extremely nonetheless fell as soon as and required three battery adjustments throughout the race. The robotic was constructed particularly for the occasion by X-Humanoid, a government-backed analysis institute that additionally has funding from Xiaomi’s robotics arm and UBTech Robotics.
“I am very proud of the outcomes, and all the pieces met my expectations,” stated Tang Jian, X-Humanoid’s Chief Know-how Officer. “This has been an excessive check of the robots’ resilience and stability. Our hope is that, no matter duties robots carry out sooner or later, they are going to be able to working across the clock, 24/7.”
Tang stated Tiangong Extremely’s lengthy legs and imitation algorithm aided its efficiency within the race.
Tiangong had a human teacher sporting a signaling gadget on his decrease again working forward of it so the robotic might mimic his strikes. Different robots had been managed with joysticks by operators who ran alongside them, and a few had leashes.
The robots diversified wildly in look. The shortest, the 30-inch Little Large, was designed to run solely three miles because it’s too sluggish. One had an unsettling feminine mannequin-like head that would smile and wink, whereas one other had a Gundam-style design – they each crashed and failed to complete the race.
A number of cities in China are pouring more cash into researching, growing, and selling humanoid robots, with the trade predicted to develop to $54.6 billion by 2030.
In November 2024, a robotic constructed by the South Korean Superior Institute of Science and Know-how (KAIST) turned the primary quadrupedal robotic to finish a full marathon. Bearing a powerful resemblance to Boston Dynamics’ Spot, RAIBO2 completed the 26.2-mile run in 4 hours, 19 minutes, and 52 seconds.
