Robots run a half marathon, slowly
It looks like humanoid robots have a long way to go before catching up with human runners.
Beijing’s E-Town tech hub hosted what it described as the world’s first humanoid half-marathon on Saturday, with 21 humanoid robots competing alongside thousands of humans.
Bloomberg reports that the winning robot, Tiangong Ultra, was built by the government-backed research institute X-Humanoid and finished the race in two hours and 40 minutes. This would not be an impressive time for a human — the race’s winning male runner finished in one hour and two minutes, and it’s normal for casual runners to complete a half-marathon in (brag alert) under two hours.
Tiangong Ultra needed human assistance to win — specifically a human who ran ahead with a signaling device on his back, enabling the robot to imitate his movements. (Most other robots were remote controlled, with human operators running beside them.)
Every other robot needed at least three hours to complete the race, and only four robots in total managed to finish ahead of the four-hour cutoff time, according to Bloomberg. Some robots barely made it past the starting line — for example, Shennong tripped a human support runner, then slammed into a fence and shattered. At one point, Little Giant (the shortest competitor, at 30 inches in height), paused as smoke emerged from its head.
The Beijing E-Town Humanoid Robot Half Marathon featured robots built by Chinese companies, as well as student groups. (Unitree’s G1 robot fell at the starting line, but the company said a client had used the robot without its algorithms.)
In order to compete, robots needed to have a humanoid appearance and run on two legs. They ran in a separate, fenced-off lane from the humans, with staggered start times to reduce the risk that they’d run into each other. Battery changes were allowed (Tiangong Ultra’s battery was changed three times), and substitute robots could even be swapped in with a time penalty.
X-Humanoid’s Chief Technology Officer Tang Jiang told Reuters, “”I don’t want to boast but I think no other robotics firms in the West have matched Tiangong’s sporting achievements.”
Anthony Ha is TechCrunch’s weekend editor. Previously, he worked as a tech reporter at Adweek, a senior editor at VentureBeat, a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, and vice president of content at a VC firm. He lives in New York City.
