Chinese robot beat humans by seven minutes in Beijing Half-Marathon

Speedy humanoid robots in China have beaten humans by seven minutes in the Beijing robot half marathon and even broke the world record set only last month.

Over 1200 humans and 100 robots participated in the marathon. Tracks were separated with a barrier to prevent the collision.

Many people were expecting a 2025-like situation which saw robots tripping, shuffling and shattering into pieces; however, the humanoids surprised everyone with their Bolt-like running speed.

A robot developed by Chinese smartphone maker Honor won the race after completing a 21 kilometer track in just 50 minutes and 26 seconds. It also broke the record of Ugandan runner Jacob Kipilmo, who ran the similar distance in 57 minutes and 20 seconds.

Last year, the fastest robot ran the same distance in two hours and 40 minutes. This highlights the technological advancements in the Chinese robotic industry that have been achieved in just a single year.

Another interesting aspect of this year’s half-marathon was that robots ran autonomously navigating through the track without human intervention.

Honor’s robots secured all three places on the podium and all three of the winning robots completed the distance faster than the fastest humans have ever covered.

Not all humanoids were advanced as several suffered major errors such as one tripped and collapsed, another faced navigation errors and many bumped into the barrier.

An engineer from the winning team said that Honor built the winning robot, named Lightning, last year, adding, it has 90-95 cm extra-length in its legs that helps it mimic the build of human elite runners.

Lightning is fitted with liquid cooling technology that helps it manage the heat generated by the movement of its leg motors.