Robots Beat Human Records At Beijing Half-Marathon (techcrunch.com)
- Reference: 0181768958
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/04/20/0346215/robots-beat-human-records-at-beijing-half-marathon
- Source link: https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/19/robots-beat-human-records-at-beijing-half-marathon/
> The winning runner at a Beijing half-marathon for humanoid robots [1]finished the race today in 50 minutes and 26 seconds -- significantly faster than the human world record of 57 minutes recently set by Jacob Kiplimo. [...] [T]he winning time is a massive improvement over last year's race, when the fastest robot finished in [2]two hours and 40 minutes .
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> The Associated Press [3]reports that this year's winner was built by Chinese smartphone maker Honor. It seems the winning robot wasn't actually the fastest, as a different Honor robot finished in 48 minutes and 19 seconds. But that one was remote controlled -- the 50:26 robot was autonomous and won due to weighted scoring. About 40% of participating robots competed autonomously, while the remaining 60% were remote controlled, according to Beijing's E-Town tech hub. Not all of them did as well as Honor's robots, with one robot falling at the starting line and another hitting a barrier.
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/19/robots-beat-human-records-at-beijing-half-marathon/
[2] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/04/19/0659220/china-pits-humanoid-robots-against-humans-in-half-marathon
[3] https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/humanoid-robot-sprints-victory-beijing-beating-human-half-132179294
Re: (Score:2)
It also doesn't get elbowed in the ribs 500m from the finish line by a fellow competitor. (yet)
Video of robots in the race (Score:2)
Including the one that tripped ...
Robots in Beijing half-marathon - [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JlmM05IitY
Re: (Score:2)
Well, at least the stretcher bearers did better than these guys: [1]https://www.reddit.com/r/funny... [reddit.com]
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/1g7at5n/stretcher_bearers_from_hell/
Obvious fake (Score:1)
Come on, this is Musk's old trick: Those aren't robots, they're people in robot suits.
Wut ?
Robot locomotion (Score:2)
The best concept I've seen involved a robot with knee and toe wheels. When presented with a smooth surface, it knelt and could travel at high speed. It only used legs when obstacles required the extra flexibility.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed, arbitrarily constraining a robot to animal-like motion defeats many of the advantages of a robot. In most cases it's simply more efficient to use wheels or fly, which machines have long been capable of. It's only in a very few niche cases that walking on legs makes sense.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree that we shouldn't feel that we need to contain robot designs to humanoid or humanoid-esque shapes and mechanics, but I would disagree that there are only a very few niche cases where walking on legs make sense. Legs (limbs more generally) have millions of years of evolutions behind them, and they work very well in many situations (walking on the ground, running, climb trees, ascending a cliff, swimming, etc). They may be considered jacks-of-all trades, and they may be less efficient than wheels or t
Storming a defended beach... (Score:2)
Storming a defended beach may seem like a niche case for you but 90 years ago it had plenty of usage...
And if things go downhill, it still may...
Finally (Score:2)
I've never understood why athletes waste their time training and competing to get into peak physical fitness just so they can run around the block a few times. Fastest in the world, sure, but what's the point? Finally they can be replaced by robots that can do all that tedious work for them.
Maybe next they can work on a machine to pray for you, like a sort of electric monk? That would be a real time-saver for a lot of people.
Um...so what? (Score:2)
Machine faster than human. They may also be physically stronger. The only thing this shows, is that humanoid robots have become reasonably efficient (assuming no recharge breaks).
Re: (Score:3)
To me, this is more about the state of the art of robots, than a comparison to human capabilities.
Until now, robots have *not* been able to accomplish such a feat. That in itself makes it noteworthy.
Can machines go faster? Sure. But the robot needed to keep its balance the entire time, and not run out of battery power. These have not been easy challenges for robot designers to overcome.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Machines have been faster for a LONG time when they're not arbitrarily constrained by being forced to emulate animal motion.
Machines which fly or run on wheels are far more efficient at traversing fixed distances at speed, and have long existed.
Re: (Score:2)
> Machine faster than human. They may also be physically stronger. The only thing this shows, is that humanoid robots have become reasonably efficient (assuming no recharge breaks).
I am so puzzled by this kind of reaction. This is the first time something like that has ever happened! Check out "WABOT-1" -- I'm not sure if it was the first bipedal robot to walk at all, but it's a product of the 1970s. Look at the progress in 50 years!
Then Check out Honda Asimo from ~2010. Asimo was only about 15 years ago.
I think going from WABOT to Asimo to an autonomous running robot that can run 26 miles in under 2 hours—in half a century—is absolutely amazing. The engineers who designed
Re: (Score:2)
Excuse me, my error. Half marathon, 13 miles.