{"id":406346,"date":"2026-04-19T08:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/406346\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T08:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:24:09","slug":"humanoid-robots-race-past-humans-in-beijing-half-marathon-showing-rapid-advances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/406346\/","title":{"rendered":"Humanoid robots race past humans in Beijing half-marathon, showing rapid advances"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEIJING \u2014 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<\/a> in Beijing on Sunday, highlighting the sector’s rapid technical advances.<\/p>\n

\"NBC<\/p>\n

Subscribe to read this story ad-free <\/p>\n

Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.<\/p>\n

\"arrow\"<\/p>\n

The race’s inaugural edition last year was riddled with mishaps, and most robots were unable to finish. Last \u2060year’s champion robot recorded a time of 2 hours 40 minutes, more than double the time of the human winner of the conventional race.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Unlike last year, nearly half of the robot entrants navigated the tougher terrain autonomously instead of being directed by remote \u2060control during the 21-km (13-mile) race. The robots and 12,000 men and women ran \u200bin \u2060parallel tracks to avoid collisions.<\/p>\n

The winning robot, developed by Chinese smartphone brand Honor, finished the race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, several minutes faster than the half-marathon world record set by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon last month.<\/p>\n

00:19<\/p>\n

Robot faceplants during humanoid marathon prep<\/p>\n

00:0000:00<\/p>\n

Teams from Honor, a \u2060Huawei spin-off, took the three podium spots, all self-navigated and posting world-record-beating times. Du Xiaodi, an Honor engineer on the winning \u200bteam, said its \u2060robot was in development for a year, fitted with \u200clegs 90 to 95 cm (35 to 37 inches) long to mimic elite human runners and liquid cooling technology used in its smartphones.<\/p>\n

Du said the sector remained in a nascent phase, but he was confident humanoids would eventually reshape many industries, including manufacturing.<\/p>\n

\"Image:A robot runs in the second Beijing E-Town Half Marathon on Sunday, April 19.Pedro Pardo \/ AFP – Getty Images<\/p>\n

“Running faster may not seem meaningful \u200cat first, but it enables technology transfer, for example, into structural reliability and cooling, \u200cand eventually industrial applications,” Du said.<\/p>\n

Robotics improvements<\/p>\n

Spectators largely viewed the variety of humanoids of different sizes and gaits on display as evidence of China’s improvements in robotics.<\/p>\n

“The humanoid robots’ running posture I saw was really quite impressive… considering that AI has only been developing for a short time, I’m already very impressed that it can achieve this level of performance,” said \u2060Chu Tianqi, a 23-year-old engineering student at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.<\/p>\n

\"TechniciansTechnicians attend to a humanoid robot after a fall during the Humanoid Robot Half-marathon on Sunday, April 19.Lintao Zhang \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

“The future will definitely be an AI era. If people don’t know how to use AI now, especially if some are still resistant to it, they will definitely become obsolete,” he said.<\/p>\n

Another spectator, 11-year-old schoolboy Guo Yukun, said after watching the race, he was inspired to pursue a university degree in robotics in the future.<\/p>\n

Guo said he takes regular classes in robotics theory and programming at his elite Beijing school, and is part of his school’s team for the International Olympiad in Informatics, a global programming competition for high schoolers.<\/p>\n

Economically viable applications <\/p>\n

While economically viable applications of humanoid robots mostly remain in a trial phase, the half-marathon’s showcasing of \u200cthese machines’ physical prowess highlights their potential to reshape everything from dangerous jobs to battlefield combat.<\/p>\n

However, Chinese robotics firms are still \u200bstruggling to develop the AI software that would enable humanoids to match the efficiency of human factory workers.<\/p>\n

Experts said the \u200cskills on display during the half-marathon, while entertaining, do not translate \u2060to the widespread commercialisation of humanoid robots in industrial settings, where manual dexterity, real-world perception and capabilities beyond small-scale, repetitive tasks \u2060are crucial.<\/p>\n

China is seeking to become a global powerhouse in this frontier industry, and it has enacted a wide range of policies from subsidies to infrastructure projects to cultivate local \u200cfirms.<\/p>\n

The country’s most-watched TV show, the annual \u200bCCTV Spring Festival gala, in February showcased China’s push to dominate humanoid \u200crobots and the future of manufacturing.<\/p>\n

That included a lengthy martial arts \u200bdemonstration where over a dozen Unitree humanoids performed sophisticated fight sequences waving swords, poles and nunchucks in close proximity to human children performers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEIJING \u2014 Dozens of Chinese-made humanoid robots showed off their fast-improving athleticism and autonomous navigation skills as they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-406346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}