The half marathon world record was broken in a race held in China this weekend. But the winner was not an Olympian or even a competitive athlete. It was a red humanoid robot. Nickname? Electricity.
An autonomous robot was competing in a robot vs. human half-marathon race in Beijing, China, an annual event that pits the country’s leading robotics companies in a foot race against their human counterparts.
Lightning was built by Honor, a Chinese robotics specialist and smartphone manufacturer. The company tested other types of robots running in the race, including robots that took second and third place titles.
Mashable got it check in advance in Honor’s latest line of AI-powered humanoid robots Mobile World Congress. The robots had impressive stability (many of these bipedal robots are prone to fall) and even a crowd-pleasing dance performance. The company also discussed a new “Robot Phone,” featuring a robotic eye and arm that emerges from a smartphone to take pictures and respond to requests.
Mashable Light Speed
During Sunday’s race, the company showed that the new era of humanoid robots is not just players, but competitive athletes, as Lightning took gold in a race of 50 minutes and 26 seconds – that’s six minutes faster than the fastest human and almost two hours faster than its time in last year’s race. Honorary engineers explained that the rapid improvement of the robot was due to the creation of its structure after elite athletes, including long legs and an internal liquid cooling system.
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Chinese robotics companies have been accelerating their development of humanoid robots over the past several years direct competition and American manufacturers. The record-breaking electricity win was taken as a sign that the country’s investments could pay off.
However, many robots needed help to cross the finish line. In addition to getting stuck at the starting line and crashing a few times, about 60 percent of the competing robots were remotely piloted by their human teams.
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