In a first-of-its-kind event, 21 humanoid robots raced alongside thousands of human participants at the Yizhuang Half-Marathon in Beijing on Saturday, completing a 21-kilometre (13-mile) course. The event marks a milestone in the integration of robotics with human sporting activities.
Produced by Chinese firms like DroidVP and Noetix Robotics, the robots differed in size some being less than 120 cm tall, while others were up to 1.8 meters tall. One firm even boasted that its robot bore a close resemblance to a human, with feminine features, and could smile and wink.
The competition was explained by authorities more as a “robotic endurance test” than a conventional race, with numerous companies spending weeks readying their machines for the test. Human trainers followed the robots during the race, providing physical assistance when necessary.
A few wore athletic equipment, such as sneakers, boxing gloves, or motivational headbands. While some succeeded in finishing the marathon, others did not a few collapsed on the starting line before they managed to get up and proceed, while another diverged into a railing.
While humanoid robots have already been displayed at Chinese marathons before, this is the first time they’ve run alongside human participants. Beijing is inserting such events into its wider drive into high-technology innovation as it sees robotics as one of the keys to future economic growth.
But experts are not convinced of the deeper meaning behind the event. Alan Fern, a professor of robotics at Oregon State University, stated that the software that makes humanoid movement possible has been around for years. “This is more about hardware longevity than breakthroughs in artificial intelligence,” he said, adding that such performances tend to be more spectacle than substance when it comes to industrial use.
However, for spectators and technology watchers, the show gave them a taste of the future when robots might take up more public space along with human beings.
