BBS: TELESC.NET.BR
Assunto: Humanoid robot beats huma
De: Mike Powell
Data: Mon, 20 Apr 2026 10:20:33 -0500
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This message was originally in conference SFSciFi2Reality
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Humanoid robot beats human world record for the first time at the Beijing
half marathon but some are still stumbling at the starting line
Date:
Mon, 20 Apr 2026 12:05:52 +0000
Description:
Take a look at the robots running in the second Humanoid Robot Half Marathon
in Beijing, China.
FULL STORY
Humanoid robot runners have performed
notably better at the second Humanoid Robot Half Marathon in Beijing than
they did at the inaugural event last year, even beating the fastest ever time
set by a flesh-and-blood person but there were still plenty of technical
challenges and mishaps along the way.
As reported by Interesting Engineering and others, the race was run by the
Honor Lightning robot, which completed the 13.1 mile / 21.1 kilometer course
in 50 minutes and 26 seconds. That beats the world record 57 minutes and 20
seconds set by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo just last month. It's
also a big improvement on the fastest robot time logged in the 2025 event,
which was 2 hours, 40 minutes, and 42 seconds. This year, the robots have
beaten people for the first time though the humans were racing on a separate
track , to avoid any collisions and injuries from wayward machines.
According to Honor engineer Du Xiaodi , Lightning's prowess is partly down to
its long legs (measuring 0.95 meters or 37.4 inches) and a custom liquid
cooling system developed in-house. Temperature control and avoiding
overheating is actually one of the most difficult aspects of getting humanoid
bots running races like this.
'From the very beginning of the design, our robot was modeled on outstanding
human athletes, with long legs of about 0.95 meters," he said. "This is a
major improvement and highlight in terms of its appearance and design. We
equipped it with a very powerful liquid-cooling system, which is also largely
developed in-house." 'Just like a T-1000' Another significant change this
year: almost half of the robots in the race were autonomous, meaning no human
controls were necessary. The bots had everything they needed on board to
navigate the course and complete the race, though some manual battery swaps
were required along the way.
More than 100 robots entered this year's race, compared to 20 last year but
as you can see from the video below , not all of them successfully made it to
the finish line. In fact, some of them struggled to get over the starting
line, showing there's still plenty of room for improvement when it comes to
these robot athletes.
Of course, the main aim with these humanoid robots isn't to
run races, but to develop them to a stage where they can be as useful as
possible whether that's on an assembly line or in a disaster zone that's too
dangerous for a human to head into. Speed and dexterity are crucial for
robots in many scenarios.
Reactions online have been mixed: despite the technical prowess on show,
many observers are worried about keeping the bots in check. One commentator
compares the racing droids to "how the T-1000 ran to catch John Connor" in
Terminator 2 , while another says "I just want one to clean my house".
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/humanoid-robot-beats-human-w
orld-record-for-the-first-time-at-the-beijing-half-marathon-but-some-are-still
-stumbling-at-the-starting-line
$$
* SLMR 2.1a * Computer Hacker wanted. Must have own axe.
--- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux
* Origin: Capitol City Online (1:2320/107)
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