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During the weekend in Chinahuman robot He broke the half marathon world record – the human record – by seven minutes.
The star performer was a robot developed by Chinese company Honor ( Smartphone maker), who finished the 13.1-mile race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds. The human record, set by Ugandan Olympic medalist Jacob Kiplimo, is 57 minutes and 20 seconds. The result represents an impressive achievement, especially considering that just one year ago, it was the fastest robot in this half marathon event It took two and a half hours to complete Same distance.
But the Honor robot was not the only participant. The event consisted of more than 100 humanoid robots from 76 organizations across China. The robots lined up alongside 12,000 human runners in Beijing’s Electronic City, albeit in separate courses to avoid accidents. The discrepancy in performance between humans and robots was more than clear.
Run, robot, run
The humanoid robot is designed to mimic the structure and movement of a human body, with legs, arms and sensors that allow it to interact with its environment. In this case, the winning robot incorporated features inspired by elite runners: long legs (almost a meter), advanced balance systems, and a liquid cooling mechanism, similar to that found in smartphones, to prevent overheating during the race.
In addition, many of the participating robots worked autonomously, that is, without direct human control. Thanks to artificial intelligence algorithms, they can adjust their pace, maintain balance and adapt to the terrain in real time. Notably, the Honor robot that hit the 50-minute mark was operating autonomously. The Chinese manufacturer introduced another robot, operated by remote control, that covers the same distance in less time: 48 minutes and 19 seconds.
As expected, some accidents occurred in the race. Some robots fell, others veered off course, and several required technical assistance along the way. While the physical performance of humanoid robots has evolved rapidly, their reliability is still evolving. Naturally, the laughter and sarcasm were no longer as frequent as before, and were replaced by applause and exclamations.
Robot superiority
Just like the robots that went viral due to their impressive display of martial arts A few weeks agoThis long-distance race is part of a broader strategy pursued by China to demonstrate its leadership in developing advanced robotics.
You don’t need to be a robotics expert to see that this achievement demonstrates that machines can outperform humans at specific physical tasks under controlled conditions. (It’s hard to imagine that a winning robot could achieve the same result if, say, it started raining during the race.) But humans still have a few tricks up their sleeve: running in a straight line is very different from performing complex real-world activities, such as handling delicate objects or interacting socially.
But it is understandable that the image of the robot crossing the finish line in record time, outperforming the human athletes, raises several questions. Is this the beginning of a new era in which machines redefine physical boundaries?
One could argue that a car is a machine, and has always been faster than humans. But the humanoid robot is designed to mimic humans. It is even more disturbing to see a human being beating humanity at their own game, even if many of them are still tripping over themselves.
This story originally appeared on WIRED in Spanish It was translated from Spanish.