Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
Humanoid robots outpaced humans in a half-marathon in Beijing last month, though they were left in the dust a year ago.
On the 21km course, human participants joined robotic contenders from 100 companies and research groups.
The remote-controlled robot Lightning technically finished first with a time of 48 minutes and 19 seconds. But under the event’s scoring rules, the robot Shandian won with a time of 50 minutes and 26 seconds.
Last year, the fastest robot crossed the finish line in a little over two hours and 40 minutes. The men’s half-marathon world record is held by Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo with a time of 57 minutes and 20 seconds, set at the Lisbon Half Marathon in March.
At the race in Beijing, barriers separated the robots’ running track from their human competitors. The course was designed to test the robots’ abilities on more than 10 types of terrain. Engineers made adjustments to their robots along the way at stations that provided batteries and tools.
