You may haveseen robots dancinglike themusic icon Mick Jagger , doing parkour , or evenpainting on a canvas . Tesla ’s Optimus humanoid robotis eagerly anticipated , while Google andMeta are also design to enter the field . The challenger in the East , however , is on a different grade altogether .
China just put humanoid robots to the test in the existence ’s first backwash of its variety , where they ran alongside mankind in a half - endurance contest . A sum of 21 robots line up for the effect in the Yizhuang half - marathon , following a long spell of supervised learning on roads .
The outcome saw a whole bunch of robotics companies showcase their ware . Some of the automaton were as short as 3.9 understructure , while others reach a distinctive human height of 5.9 feet . Some stumbled , a few tried to get back up on their own , while a small routine needed human assistance .
During the race , the humanoid robots navigated around steep slopes , chuckhole , puddle , and bland asphalt . bombardment trade were permit , but replenishment would incur a steep penalization . Not all automaton made it to the finish furrow , however , despite intervention by robotics and software experts .
Did robots beat humans?
Not really , and the gap was huge , as well . The human victor finish the half - marathon in just over an time of day , while the get ahead humanoid golem bring 2 hours and 40 minutes to reach the culture blood line .
That comes down to an average speed of 4.89 air mile per hour . For comparison , Olympian wizard Usain Bolt reach out a top speed of 27.33 miles per hour at a caterpillar track consequence in 2011 . Beating a human runner , however , was never the dot , even though the winneroutperformedthe applied science team ’s arithmetic mean by roughly half an time of day .
The half - marathon in China was more like a showcase of progress made by local robotics companies . The winner among the humanoid golem , refer Tiangong Ultra , is arise by the Beijing Innovation Center of Human Robotics .
A milestone achievement
“ I do n’t want to boast but I conceive no other robotics house in the West have matched Tiangong ’s sporting accomplishment , ” Tang Jian , head word of the company behind the gain automaton , was quoted as say byReuters .
It ’s a state of matter - backed companionship in which Chinese electronics behemoth Xiaomi is also a central stakeholder . allot toSCMP , the caller aspire to become “ the Android in the field of humanoid robots . ” For the half - battle of Marathon , some modification work was also done to get the honorable performance .
“ We lighten up the golem without compromising its strength , refine its wooden leg pattern , and amend its thermal conductivity and zephyr - cool down systems to encourage stability and endurance , ” Guo Yijie , a technician for the Tien Kung Ultra robot , toldXinhua .
participate company and the organizers behind the unique half marathon government note that the ultimate destination is to showcase humanoid robots in human environments . They will soon graduate from design labs to industrial configurations , but the ultimate destination is to put them into an average individual ’s home as a helpful assistant .
