Beijing – Dozens of Chinese-made humanoid robots showed off their fast-improving athleticism and autonomous navigation skills as they whizzed past human runners in a half-marathon race in Beijing on Sunday, highlighting the sector’s rapid technical advances.
The race’s inaugural edition last year was riddled with mishaps, and most robots were unable to finish. Last year’s champion robot recorded a time of 2 hours 40 minutes, more than double the time of the human winner of the conventional race.
This year’s contrast was stark. Not only had the number of participating teams increased from 20 to more than 100, but several robot frontrunners were noticeably faster than professional athletes, beating the human winners by more than 10 minutes.
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