A robotic begins off for the Beijing E-City Half Marathon and Humanoid Half Marathon on the outskirts of Beijing on Sunday, April 19, 2026.
Ng Han Guan/AP
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Ng Han Guan/AP
BEIJING — A humanoid robotic that gained a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran quicker than the human world report in a present of China’s technological leaps.
The winner from Honor, a Chinese language smartphone maker, accomplished the 21-kilometer (13-mile) race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, in keeping with a WeChat put up by the Beijing Financial-Technological Improvement Space, also referred to as Beijing E-City, the place the race kicked off.
That was quicker than the human world report holder, Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo, who completed the identical distance in about 57 minutes in March on the Lisbon highway race.
The efficiency by the robotic marked a big step ahead from final yr’s inaugural race, throughout which the successful robotic completed in 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds.
However the competitors, which was held alongside a race for people, wasn’t with out hiccups — one robotic fell flat in the beginning line, one other bumped right into a barrier.
A robotic crashes towards a board after crossing the end line within the Beijing E-City Half Marathon and Humanoid Robotic Half-Marathon held within the outskirts of Beijing, Sunday, April 19, 2026.
Andy Wong/AP
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Andy Wong/AP
Du Xiaodi, Honor’s take a look at growth engineer, stated his crew was proud of the outcomes. Du stated its robotic design was modeled on excellent human athletes, with lengthy legs of about 95 cm (round 37 inches), and was geared up with what he known as a strong liquid-cooling system, which was largely developed in-house.
“Looking ahead, some of these technologies might be transferred to other areas. For example, structural reliability and liquid-cooling technology could be applied in future industrial scenarios,” he stated.
Whereas it’s going to nonetheless take time to realize widespread commercialization of humanoid robots, spectators had been already impressed by the robots. Solar Zhigang, who had been within the viewers final yr, watched Sunday’s race together with his son.
“I feel enormous changes this year,” Solar stated. “It’s the first time robots have surpassed humans, and that’s something I never imagined.”
Wang Wen, who got here together with his household, stated robots appeared to have stolen a lot of the highlight from human runners within the occasion.
“The robots’ speed far exceeds that of humans,” he stated. “This may signal the arrival of sort of a new era.”
Beijing E-City stated about 40% of the robots navigated the course autonomously, whereas the others had been remotely managed.
State media outlet World Instances reported {that a} separate, remotely-controlled robotic from Honor was the primary to cross the end line in 48 minutes and 19 seconds. However it stated the successful one used autonomous navigation and acquired the championship underneath the occasion’s weighted scoring guidelines.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that the runners-up, which had been additionally from Honor and used autonomous navigation, completed the race in about 51 minutes and 53 minutes respectively. A robotic served as a visitors officer to direct the individuals with its arm gestures and voice, CCTV added.
A robotic runs because it competes within the Beijing E-City Half Marathon and Humanoid Robotic Half-Marathon on the outskirts of Beijing, Sunday, April 19, 2026.
Andy Wong/AP
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Andy Wong/AP
In China, expertise has developed into an space of competitors with the U.S. with nationwide safety implications. Beijing’s newest five-year plan vows to “target the frontiers of science and technology.” Dashing up the event of merchandise like humanoid robots and their purposes is a part of the 2026-2030 plan for the world’s second-largest economic system.
London-based expertise analysis and advisory group Omdia lately ranked three Chinese language corporations — AGIBOT, Unitree Robotics and UBTech Robotics Corp. — as the one first-tier distributors in its world evaluation for cargo numbers for general-purpose embodied clever robots.
All of them shipped greater than 1,000 models of the robots final yr, with the primary two corporations transport greater than 5,000 models, the report stated.
