By Eduardo Baptista and Laurie Chen
BEIJING, April 19 (Reuters) – Dozens of Chinese-made humanoid robots showed off their fast-improving athleticism as they whizzed past human runners in a half-marathon race in Beijing on Sunday, having lagged far behind a year earlier.
The race’s inaugural edition last year was riddled with mishaps, as many robots struggled to get off the starting line, and most were unable to finish.
The champion robot recorded a time of 2 hours 40 minutes, comfortably ahead of its machine rivals, but more than double the time of the human winner of the conventional race.
The contrast with this year was stark. Not only had the number of robots running increased from 20 to more than 100, but several vying for the podium were noticeably faster than the professional athletes racing in the human race.
The robots and humans ran in parallel tracks to avoid collisions.
The winning robot, developed by Honor, a well-known Chinese smartphone maker, finished the race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, several minutes faster than the world record set by Jacob Kiplimo last month in Lisbon, though the humanoid had to be helped back up just metres from the finish line after crashing into the railing.
While economically valuable applications of humanoid robots remain in trial phase, the marathon’s showcasing of these machines’ physical prowess highlights their potential to reshape everything from dangerous jobs to combat on the battlefield.
China has the goal of becoming a powerhouse in this frontier industry, and it has enacted a wide range of policies from subsidies to infrastructure projects to cultivate local firms.
China’s most-watched TV show, the annual CCTV Spring Festival gala, in February showcased the country’s push to dominate humanoid robots and the future of manufacturing.
That included a lengthy martial arts demonstration where over a dozen Unitree humanoids performed sophisticated fight sequences waving swords, poles and nunchucks in close proximity to human children performers.
(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista and Laurie Chen; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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