A bunch of robots ran a half-marathon alongside people and it was extremely goofy

Beijing held what’s being known as the world’s first half-marathon for robots, permitting bipedal bots to compete alongside human runners, and as one would possibly anticipate, ridiculousness ensued. The robots, which had human operators working with them, for essentially the most half struggled to make it by way of the course in any respect, not to mention full the total 13 miles inside the four-hour cutoff time. “One fell on the beginning line,” experiences. “One other’s head fell off and rolled on the bottom. And one collapsed and broke into items.” They will not be gold medalists simply but, however the movies certain are entertaining.

The humanoid robotic half-marathon in Beijing simply began! pic.twitter.com/8vr2nXQwuR

— The Humanoid Hub (@TheHumanoidHub) April 19, 2025

In response to Bloomberg, 21 robots participated within the race, however the winner — X Humanoid’s five-foot-ten Tiangong Extremely — was one in every of solely 4 to make all of it the way in which to the tip within the allotted time. And at two hours and 40 minutes, its ending time was greater than double that of the successful human runners.

The groups have been allowed to do battery swaps (Tiangong Extremely reportedly completed on its third battery) and even swap out their robots mid-race for substitutes, although doing that got here with time penalties. Together with Tiangong Extremely, which ran at round 5 miles per hour, the robotic runners included Noetix Robotics’ N2, a Gundam-inspired robotic, a “female-looking” bot known as Huan Huan, and the 30-inch-tall Little Big robotic made by native faculty college students, Bloomberg experiences. A lot of them have been carrying human trainers.

This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/a-bunch-of-robots-ran-a-half-marathon-alongside-humans-and-it-was-incredibly-goofy-215134524.html?src=rss

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