Faces of the future: The mechanical runners joined thousands of their flesh-and-blood counterparts in the half marathon showcasing China’s drive to lead the global race in cutting-edge technology. — AFP/AP
STEP by mechanical step, dozens of humanoid robots took to the streets of Beijing, joining thousands of their flesh-and-blood counterparts in a world-first half marathon showcasing China’s drive to lead the global race in cutting-edge technology.
The 21m event held yesterday in the Chinese capital’s E-Town – a state-backed hub for high-tech manufacturing – is billed as a groundbreaking effort to test the limits of bipedal robots in real-world conditions.
At the crack of the starter’s gun, and as a Chinese pop song I Believe blared out from loudspeakers on repeat, the robots queued up one by one and took their first tentative steps.
Curious human runners lined up on their side of the road and waited with mobile phones at the ready to shoot each machine as they prepared to depart.
One smaller-sized android, which fell over and lay on the ground for several minutes, got up by itself to loud cheers.
Another, powered by propellers and designed to look like a Transformer, veered across the starting line before crashing into a barrier and knocking over an engineer.
“Getting onto the race track might seem like a small step for humans, but it’s a giant leap for humanoid robots,” Liang Liang, Beijing E-Town’s management committee deputy director, said.
“The marathon helps push humanoid robots one step closer toward industrialisation.”
Around 20 teams from across China took part in the competition – with robots ranging from 75cm to 180cm tall and weighing up to 88kg.
Some ran autonomously, while others were guided remotely by engineers, with machines and humans running on separate tracks.
Engineers said the goal was to test the performance and reliability of the androids – emphasising that finishing the race, not winning it, was the main objective.
“I think it’s a big boost for the entire robotics industry,” Cui Wenhao, a 28-year-old engineer at Noetix Robotics, said of the half-marathon.
“Honestly, there are very few opportunities for the whole industry to run at full speed over such a long distance or duration. It’s a serious test for the battery, the motors, the structure – even the algorithms.”
Faces of the future: The mechanical runners joined thousands of their flesh-and-blood counterparts in the half marathon showcasing China’s drive to lead the global race in cutting-edge technology. — AFP/AP
Cui said as part of its training, a humanoid robot had been running a half-marathon every day at a pace of about seven minutes per kilometre, and he expected it to complete the race with no issues.
“But just in case, we’ve also prepared a back-up robot,” he added.
Another young engineer, 25-year-old Kong Yichang from DroidUp, said the race would help to “lay a foundation for a whole series of future activities involving humanoid robots”.
“The significance (of the race) lies in the fact that humanoid robots can truly integrate into human society and begin doing things that humans do.”
Faces of the future: The mechanical runners joined thousands of their flesh-and-blood counterparts in the half marathon showcasing China’s drive to lead the global race in cutting-edge technology. — AFP/AP
China, the world’s second-largest economy, has sought to assert its dominance in the fields of artificial technology and robotics, positioning itself as a direct challenger to the United States.
In January, Chinese start-up DeepSeek drew attention with a chatbot it claimed was developed more cost-effectively than its American counterparts.
Dancing humanoid robots also captivated audiences during a televised Chinese New Year gala. — AFP
