Last Saturday, 21 humanoid robots participated in the Yizhuang half-marathon in Beijing, China – racing alongside thousands of human runners over a 21km course. The robots came in varying shapes and sizes, ranging from 120cm to 1.8m, and were from Chinese manufacturers like DroidUP and Noetix Robotics.
Accompanying the robots were their human trainers, who needed to provide physical support for some of the machines. According to Reuters, several companies also tested their robots for weeks prior to the actual race. The need for engineering and navigation teams has also caused Beijing officials to compare the event to a race car competition.
A robot called Tiangong Ultra completed the race in two hours and 40 minutes, placing it as the winner among the machines. Its record pales in comparison to the winner of the men’s division, who took an hour and two minutes to reach the finish line. While this does seem to diminish the robot’s accomplishment somewhat, it is worth noting that a good number of the machines did not finish the course. One robot reportedly flopped onto the ground at the starting line, only getting up and taking off after a few minutes, while another crashed into a railing after a few metres and caused its human operator to fall over.
Ultimately, the robots’ participation in the race was less about actually winning, but more about demonstrating breakthroughs in robotics and artificial intelligence. According to the Beijing Innovation Center of Human Robotics, Tiangong Ultra’s performance was attributed to its long legs and an algorithm that allowed it to mimic how humans run in marathons. The model also reportedly only needed to change its batteries only three times during the race.
(Source: Reuters)
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