When we think of robots of the future, we imagine them agile, fast, tireless. Then comes the Beijing Half Marathon and reality hits us in the face… like a robot tripping over its own feet.
Of the 21 humanoid participants, only six crossed the finish line, amidst grotesque falls and heads that literally detached from the body. The fastest robot, Tiangong Ultra, you see them crossing the finish line in the cover photo, took 2 hours and 40 minutes to complete the half marathon (after three battery changes and one crash). To give you an idea: the latest time available for human runners was 3 hours and 10 minutes. Not exactly the dawn of machine dominance that many fear. Skynet, move right over.
The winner and the (few) survivors
As mentioned, Tiangong Ultra, developed by the Chinese company UBTech in collaboration with the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, was the only one to qualify for a prize that would also be awarded to human participants. Standing about 175 cm tall, he managed to maintain a steady, if slow, pace; no small feat, considering that his mechanical colleagues proved to be decidedly less capable.
The runner-up, the N2 robot produced by Noetix Robotics, has also maintained a steady pace, but slower. The others? Well, the word “disaster” is almost an understatement. A robot named Huanhuan, featuring a human-like head, moved at snail speed for a few minutes, with its head shaking uncontrollably as if it were about to fall off (which, for other models, actually happened).
And what about Shennong, a veritable Frankenstein's monster with Gundam-like heads and four backward-facing drone propellers? After spinning twice as soon as it took off, it hit a wall, dragging its human operators down with it. A painful spectacle to watch, but undeniably hilarious.
The secret weapon: duct tape
The most effective technology of the day? Duct tape. I am not joking. Human operators not only used it to create makeshift shoes for the robots, but also to reattach heads that repeatedly fell off while running, creating some decidedly surreal scenes.
Each robot had human operators, often two or three, running alongside them. Some held control panels to give instructions, others guided the way, trying to eliminate potential obstacles. More than a few humanoids were kept on a… leash.
You should think of these robots more like remote-controlled cars that are racing. Only the robots don't have wheels.
By the end of the race, many viewers of the livestream were commenting on how exhausted the robots’ human operators looked. They were driving the machines, furiously changing batteries, and constantly spraying coolant on the motors, all while also walking a half-marathon, 21 kilometers. The real protagonists? Humans.
Robot Half Marathon: A Useful Experiment, Despite Everything
Despite the tragicomic spectacle, this half-marathon demonstrated how robust humanoid hardware has become in recent years. Until about five years ago, we didn't really know how to make robots walk reliably. Now we do.
Of course, the current limitations of robots have created some memorable scenes. Xuanfeng Xiaozi, another robot developed by Noetix, started out strong but broke down more and more frequently during the race. At one point, he fell completely face down on the ground and his head fell off his body. A team of human operators quickly intervened (with the formidable duct tape) to fix him and get him back on track.
When he finally almost finished the race, Xuanfeng Xiaozi had a cooling pad attached to his front and his right foot out of sync with his left, yet he managed to stagger to the finish line. I never thought I'd see something so Fantozzian yet robotic.
The half marathon certainly showed the design flaws of these robots far more than their capabilities. Don't worry, human athletes: you still have plenty of time before the robots steal your medals. For now, let's just smile as we watch them stumble toward a future that, deep down, we know, belongs to them too.
