We already knew about robots capable of running long distances and doing it at speeds similar to humans. The next step was logical: face them in a race. And that is what will happen In April: the first athletic competition between humans and robots.
According to the Chinese press, the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area (or E-Town, a kind of industrial estate that hosts more than 6,000 technology companies from 30 countries) will host 12,000 humans and humanoid robots of more than 20 companies in a half marathon race in April.
The race will have a length of approximately 21 kilometers and the robotic competitors cannot have wheels and must measure between 45 centimeters and 2 meters high. In a statement, E-Town added that “The robots that compete must have a humanoid appearance and a mechanical structure capable of walking or running bipeds. ”
At The Beijing Yizhuang Half #Marathon on the morning of nov. 10, The #Beijing Humanoid #robot & quot; tiangong & quot; Enttered The Racecourse and Crossed the Finish Line Alongsis The Runners. #funinbeijingpic.twitter.com/dqm1zjxnek
– Beijing Daily (@dilybeijing) November 10, 2024
Although this seems to be the first race in the world in which they explicitly face bipedos against robots, It will not be the first time that a humanoid robot participates in a Chinese athletic competition.
The past fall, a bipedo robot called Tiangong participated in the last stage of the Yizhaung Marathon of Beijing towards the end. Although it only ran about 100 meters and was not especially fast, The robot won a medal because it crossed the finish line.
Just a few weeks after Tiangong’s debut, the Robot Raibo2 dog competed in a marathon in South Korea. Although the adorable quadruped was significantly faster than Tiangong, took almost four hours and 20 minutes to finish 42 kilometers (almost double the time of the human winner, who made a time of about two hours and 36 minutes).
But since he is not Chinese or moves on two legs, Raibo2 will not participate in the E-Town Marathon. However, according to the state news agency Xinhua, Tiangong will be one of the participants and allegedly He will be able to run 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) per hour when the race date arrives.
That same agency also reported that at the end of this year, in August, Beijing will house an exclusively robotic sporting event that will not only include athletics, but also football and “comprehensive skills and other application scenarios”.
Although we cannot know how fast these runners will be until we see them, it is not so long for April. And it will be very interesting to see how far they are able to arrive and how fast.