Humanoid robot sets half marathon record in China

During the weekend In Chinaa humanoid robot He broke the half-marathon world record – the human record – by seven minutes.

The star performer was a robot developed by the Chinese company Honor (the smartphone manufacturer), who completed the 13.1-mile race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds. The human record, set by Ugandan Olympic medalist Jacob Kiplimo, is 57 minutes and 20 seconds. This result marks an impressive milestone, especially considering that a year earlier, the fastest robot in this half-marathon event took two and a half hours to complete the same distance.

But Honor’s robot wasn’t the only participant. The event brought together more than 100 humanoid robots from 76 institutions across China. The robots lined up alongside 12,000 human runners in Beijing’s electronic city, although on separate courses to avoid accidents. The contrast between the performance of humans and robots was more than obvious.

Run, robot, run

A humanoid robot is designed to mimic the structure and movements of the human body, with legs, arms and sensors that allow it to interact with its environment. In this case, the winning robot incorporated features inspired by elite runners: long legs (nearly one meter), advanced balance systems and a liquid cooling mechanism, similar to that of smartphones, to prevent overheating while running.

Additionally, many participating robots operated autonomously, that is, without direct human control. Thanks to artificial intelligence algorithms, they were able to adjust their pace, maintain their balance and adapt to the terrain in real time. Notably, the Honor robot which reached the 50 minute mark worked autonomously. The Chinese manufacturer presented another robot, controlled by remote control, which covered the same route in even less time: 48 minutes and 19 seconds.

As expected, there were a few accidents during the race. Some robots fell, others veered off path, and several required technical assistance along the way. Even though the physical performance of humanoid robots has progressed rapidly, their reliability continues to develop. Of course, the laughter and jeers are no longer as frequent as before, replaced by applause and exclamations of surprise.

Superiority of robots

Just like the robots that went viral for their impressive martial arts display a few weeks agothis long-distance race is part of a broader strategy by China to show its leadership in the development of advanced robots.

You don’t need to be a robotics expert to see that this achievement demonstrates that machines can outperform humans at specific physical tasks under controlled conditions. (It’s hard to imagine that the winning robot could achieve the same result, say, if it started raining during the race.) But humans still have a few tricks up their sleeve: Running in a straight line is very different from performing complex real-world activities, like handling delicate objects or interacting socially.

We understand, however, that the image of a robot crossing the finish line in record time, in front of human athletes, raises several questions. Is this the start of a new era in which machines redefine physical limits?

You could say that a car is a machine, and machines have always been faster than humans. But a humanoid robot is designed to imitate humans. It’s more alarming to see someone beating humanity at its own game, even if many of them are still tripping over themselves.

This story was originally published in WIRED in spanish and was translated from Spanish.