While the possibilities such as dancing can be fun and catching, they do not show how useful humanoid works are in real situations, says Fern. Even the possibility of conducting a half marathon is not a very useful reference point for their skills – it is not that there is a market demand for robots that can compete with human runners. The benchmarks, which Fern claims that they matter to him, how they can cope well with various tasks in the real world without human instructions step by step. “But I would expect China to focus more on doing useful things this year, because people will bore dancing and karate,” says Fern.
The robots that participated in the race had various forms. The shortest was only 2 feet and 5 inches high. Growing a blue -white tracksuit and waving to observers every few seconds, it was probably a favorite crowd. The highest, five -inches at five feet, was the winner of Tiangong Ultra.
All robots have in common that they are two -legged instead of running on wheels, which is a requirement to participate in the race. As long as the robots met this requirement, they could freely creativity, and the companies behind them adopted a wide range of strategies to gain an advantage over competitors. Some wore children’s sneakers (although screwed to the pedals to avoid falling). Others were equipped with knee pads to protect their dainty parts from damage when they fell. Most robots removed their fingers, and some even lacked heads – after all, you don’t need such parts for running, and removing them reduces the weight of the robot and the amount of load on their engines.
Tiangong Ultra and a different model, Robot N2 made by the Chinese company Noetix Robotics, which won the second place in the race, distinguished their consistent, though leisurely pace. The performance of other humanoids was mostly catastrophic. One robot named Huanhuan, who has a human head, moved only at the speed of snail for a few minutes, while his head shook uncontrollable-if he could fall at any time.
Another robot named Shennong looks like Frankenstein’s real monster, with a head that resembles Gundam and four drone propellers that encounter backwards. He sits on a foundation with eight wheels and it is not clear as it does not disqualify. But this was not even the biggest problem of Shennong, because the robot immediately turned in two circles after starting from the starting line, hit the wall and dragged him with human operators. Watching was painful.
The adhesive tape turned out to be the most effective tool for solving problems. Accompanying people not only made makeshift shoes of a robot with adhesive tape, but also used him to attach the robot’s head back to his body after he fell many times during the run, creating very annoying scenes.
Every robot had human operators, often two or three running next to them. Some kept the control panels that allowed them to give the robot instructions, including speed, while other operators conducted their robots and tried to remove potential obstacles on Earth. Many humanoids were kept on something that looked like, well, pets. “You want to think about these robots more like driving a remote control car through the race. But robots have no wheels,” says Fern.