When most robotics makers want to strut their stuff, they don’t typically resort to sporting events. But in China, things are done a little differently. This past weekend, the Yizhuang half-marathon, held in Beijing, saw 21 robotics teams lining up against human runners.
If you’re reading this to find out how badly the humans fared, you’ll be disappointed. The fastest robot was more than twice as slow as the quickest human. Unfortunately, it may well be speedier than much of the human population — not just slow folks from China.
Fine, China
Various robot manufacturers participated in the half-marathon, each fielding its own robotic competitor. Tiangong Ultra, a creation from the Beijing Innovation Center of Human Robotics and the first robot to complete the event, actually finished. Others… did not.
Robots from DroidUP, Noetix Robotics, and others had varying degrees of success. One fell over at the very start of the event, thrashing around before finally managing to find its feet and resume proceedings. Crashes and malfunctions took some of the humanoid robots out of the competition. Doubtless, the data from the event will be used to improve performance for all the entities that entered.
Tiangong Ultra set a time of 2h40 for the half-marathon. That’s a little over seven-and-a-half minutes a kilometre. If your Parkrun time is any higher, it might be time to strap those training shoes on again.
The Yizhuang half-marathon’s quickest human, on the other hand, completed the event in 1h02. They… are probably safe from the robot uprising for a while yet.
