On the weekend in China, a humanoid robot broke the half marathon world record – the human record – by seven minutes.
The star was a robot developed by the Chinese company Honor (a smartphone manufacturer) that ran a distance of 23.1 miles in 50 minutes and 26 seconds. The human record set by Ugandan Olympic medalist Jacob Kiplimo is 57 minutes and 20 seconds. The result is an impressive milestone, especially considering that just a year earlier, the fastest robot in the half marathon took two and a half hours to cover the distance.
But the Honor robot wasn’t the only participant. More than 100 humanoid robots from 76 institutions across China participated in the event. The robots lined up alongside 12,000 runners in Beijing’s E-Town, albeit on separate routes to avoid accidents. The contrast in the actions of humans and robots was more than obvious.
Run, robot, run
The humanoid robot is intended to imitate the structure and movement of the human body using legs, arms and sensors that allow it to interact with its environment. In this case, the winning robot had features inspired by elite runners: long legs (almost a meter), advanced balance systems and a liquid cooling mechanism, similar to that used in smartphones, to prevent overheating during a race.
Moreover, many robots participating in the project operated autonomously, i.e. without direct human control. Thanks to artificial intelligence algorithms, they could adjust their pace, maintain balance and adapt to the terrain in real time. It is worth noting that the Honor robot, which achieved the 50-minute result, operated autonomously. The Chinese manufacturer presented another remotely controlled robot, which covered the same section in an even shorter time: 48 minutes and 19 seconds.
As expected, there were several accidents during the race. Some robots fell, others strayed off the path, and a few needed technical assistance along the way. Although the physical performance of humanoid robots has increased rapidly, their reliability continues to improve. Of course, laughter and jeers are no longer as recurrent as they used to be, they are replaced by applause and shouts of surprise.
Robot advantage
Like robots that went viral thanks to an impressive martial arts display a few weeks agothis long-distance race is part of China’s broader strategy to showcase its leadership in the development of advanced robots.
You don’t need to be a robotics expert to see that this achievement shows that machines can outperform humans at performing specific physical tasks under controlled conditions. (It’s demanding to imagine that a winning robot could achieve the same result, for example, if it started raining mid-race.) But humans still have a few tricks up their sleeve: Running in a straight line is very different from performing intricate real-world tasks, such as manipulating dainty objects or interacting socially.
Understandably, however, the image of a robot crossing the finish line in record time ahead of human athletes raises several questions. Is this the beginning of a recent era where machines redefine physical limits?
You can argue that a car is a machine, and machines have always been faster than humans. But the humanoid robot is designed to imitate humans. What’s more disturbing is that someone is beating humanity at its own game – even if so many of them are still tripping over themselves.
This story originally appeared on WIRED in Spanish and was translated from Spanish.