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Winner of Beijing robot half-marathon smashes human world record by 6 minutes
The Lightning humanoid developed by Chinese firm Honor competed against more than 100 other robots and thousands of much slower humans
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Ben Jiangin Beijing
The winner of a robot half-marathon held in Beijing on Sunday smashed the human world record by more than six minutes in the latest display of the industry’s rapid development.
The humanoid device, known as Lightning, was developed by the Chinese smartphone and gadget company Honor, which only entered the sector last year.
Its finishing time of 50 minutes 26 seconds was far quicker than the men’s world record of 57:20 held by the Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo and around 17 minutes faster than the quickest human in Sunday’s race, a local amateur runner.
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Organisers said Sunday’s humanoid robot half-marathon attracted 105 competitors in contrast to the 21 entries for last year’s event.
Under the rules of the competition, different teams can enter the same model using different hardware and algorithms to control the robot. This year, the top three were all Lightning models operated by different teams.
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The winning robot was 169cm (5.5ft) high, weighed around 45kg (99lbs) and was designed to adapt to complex terrains while moving at high speeds.
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