BarcelonaThis Sunday, humanoid robots have decreased the time they set final yr in the Beijing half marathon by almost two hours. Specifically, the Qitian Dasheng robotic received with a time of fifty minutes and 26 seconds. The successful workforce, nonetheless, was not the quickest: the Shandian, which operates underneath distant management, accomplished the 21 kilometers of the race with a internet time of 48 minutes and 19 seconds, regardless of struggling a fall 100 meters from the end line. The quickest robotic, nonetheless, was not declared the winner, as a result of, based on the competitors guidelines, the occasions of remotely managed robots are multiplied by 1.2.
The check in the Yizhuang expertise district introduced collectively greater than 100 humanoid robotic groups, together with about 12,000 human runners on an city course of 21.0975 kilometers, in the second version of an occasion conceived as a testing floor for the sort of applied sciences. The course included several types of terrain, equivalent to curves, descents, and slim sections, designed to check the soundness and adaptableness of the robots in completely different situations.
Performance leap
The enchancment in occasions in comparison with 2025, when the Tiangong robotic received with 2 hours, 40 minutes, and 42 seconds, displays the speedy development in capabilities equivalent to pace, stability, or power administration in a race the place one of the best data have been already round 50 minutes. The human world record for a half marathon is 57 minutes and 20 seconds.
The occasion has mixed autonomous navigation robots and others remotely guided, in a contest with a unified classification that weighs the outcomes based on the diploma of human intervention, with the intention of encouraging the event of options able to working with out help. Among the members have been additionally worldwide groups from establishments such because the Technical University of Munich (Germany) or Paris-Saclay University (France).
In parallel, the race has served as a showcase for brand spanking new functions, equivalent to a transit robotic that debuted on the course giving instructions to runners and which authorities plan to progressively incorporate for city administration duties, based on state tv CCTV. The race is a part of Beijing’s technique to advertise humanoid robotics as an trade, utilizing real-world assessments to speed up its growth and consider its doable utility in areas equivalent to industrial inspection, help, or city providers.
In the human class, China’s Zhao Haijie received the lads’s race with a time of 1 hour, 7 minutes, and 47 seconds, whereas Wang Qiaoxia received the ladies’s race with 1 hour, 18 minutes, and 6 seconds, based on group information.