Usain Bolt has finally found an opponent capable of stealing his records — the small catch being that it isn’t human. At the World Humanoid Robot Games, held this weekend in Beijing, a Chinese robot ran the 100 metres in 9.39 seconds, better than the 9.58 seconds set by the Jamaican legend in 2009. Named Tiangong Ultra, this China-developed humanoid therefore officially crossed the line faster than the human world record. A spectacular performance, but one that obviously needs putting in context...
More than 2,000 robots gathered in Beijing
That 100 metres was only one of the many events staged for the second edition of the World Humanoid Robot Games. Over 5 days, more than 2,000 humanoid robots, coming notably from China but also from Japan, Germany and the United States, competed across some fifty disciplines. On the programme: sprinting, football, table tennis, weightlifting and even tug of war. The aim is of course sporting, but these competitions serve above all as a technology showcase for China’s fast-growing robotics industry. And as you can see, the performances are starting to become frankly impressive, because on top of the 100 metres record being broken, another robot managed a high jump of 2.88 metres, once again above the human record of 2.45 metres set by Javier Sotomayor in 1993.
The 400 metres also goes under the human record
Tiangong Ultra didn’t stop at the 100 metres sprint, either. On Sunday, the robot also completed a 400 metres in 38.15 seconds, nearly five seconds faster than the human world record in the discipline. But not every machine in Beijing was so comfortable. Some struggled to get off the line, others moved barely faster than a walking human, while several robots simply ended up collapsing on the track.
Because behind the impressive images, the technology is still very experimental. For now these robots are mainly used for demonstrations, research or very narrowly targeted industrial applications. China’s goal, however, is clear: speed up their development in order to deploy them gradually in factories, in logistics and, eventually, in our daily lives.
The World Humanoid Robot Games are a fairly good illustration of the technology race currently playing out around humanoids, with China having clearly taken a head start. They are on fire in Xi Jinping’s country!
