Beijing– A humanoid robot that won half marathon race Robots ran faster than a human world record in Beijing on Sunday in a show of China’s technological leap.
The winner from Chinese smartphone maker Honor completed the 21-kilometer (13-mile) run in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, according to a WeChat post from the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race started.
It was also faster than human world record holder Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, who covered the same distance in about 57 minutes at the Lisbon Road Race in March.
The robot’s performance marked a significant step forward from last year’s inaugural race, during which the winning robot finished in 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds.
But the race was not without obstacles – one robot fell at the start line, another collided with an obstacle.
Beijing E-Town said about 40% of the robots navigated the course autonomously, while the others were controlled remotely.
A separate, remotely controlled robot from Honor was the first robot to cross the finish line in 48 minutes and 19 seconds, state media outlet Global Times reported. But it said the winner used autonomous navigation and received the championship under the event’s weighted scoring rules.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that the runners-up, who were also from Honor and used autonomous navigation, completed the race in about 51 minutes and 53 minutes respectively. CCTV said a robot posing as a traffic officer directed participants with hand gestures and voice.
In China, technology is developed as a field of competition With national security implications for the US. Beijing’s latest Five year plan Pledged to “target the frontiers of science and technology”. Accelerating the development of products such as humanoid robots and their applications is part of the 2026-2030 plan for the world’s second-largest economy.
London-based technology research and advisory group Omdia recently ranked three Chinese companies – AGIBOT, Unitri Robotics and UBTech Robotics Corp – as the only first-tier vendors in its global assessment for shipment numbers for general-purpose embodied intelligent robots.
The report said they all shipped more than 1,000 units of robots last year, with the first two companies shipping more than 5,000 units.
