A summary of scenes where a humanoid robot stumbles during China's 'human runner vs robot' half marathon



Advances in robotics have made it more realistic to put into practical use human-like robots like those seen in science fiction movies, such as

the unveiling of a Chinese humanoid robot that runs like a human. However, at a half marathon race held in China on April 19, 2025, featuring a mixed race of humans and robots, only four of the 21 robots that participated were able to complete the race, and many robots withdrew right after the start or collapsed and lost their heads, highlighting the fact that humanoid robots are still far from being as good as humans.

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On April 19th, the 2025 Beijing Yizhuang Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon was held in Beijing, the capital of China. 21 robots from 20 teams, including Chinese robotics companies and local university student groups, and 12,000 human runners took on the 21.0975km half marathon.

Many videos have been posted on social media of robots running in the marathon and the engineers who support them. Below is a video taken just after the start. For safety reasons, the robot runners started slowly one by one in a separate lane from the human runners.



The winner of the robot category of this half marathon was 'Tien Kung Ultra' from the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center (X-Humanoid), which was established by major electronics manufacturer Xiaomi, Chinese robotics company UBTech, and the Beijing Municipal Government.



You can see the smooth running of the Tenkyu Ultra in the video below. The Tenkyu Ultra Robot was closely accompanied by an operator, who supported it with his hands when it wobbled slightly.



At Tenmyou Ultra, runners cross the finish line first and are given a medal at the awards ceremony.



However, running, which is both a basic and advanced human movement, was still a tough challenge for the robots, and they had a series of machine troubles and accidents along the way. The video below summarizes what happened.



A robot that falls and loses its head.



Some robots were able to bounce around by moving their limbs wildly even after falling over.



The robot, wearing sneakers, also lost its footing and fell over.



There is also a scene where he suddenly falls forward.



The robot, called 'Shennong,' was equipped with a Gundam-like head and giant propellers, but lost control and crashed into a barrier separating the human and robot tracks, forcing it to retire.



Tenkyu Ultra won the robot category in the half marathon with a time of 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds, a world record for the first humanoid robot to complete a half marathon, but well behind the human winner who finished in 1 hour, 2 minutes and 36 seconds.

Tengu Ultra, which was specially designed for the marathon, fell over once due to a dead battery, but successfully completed the race after three battery changes. While the other robot runners were controlled by cable-attached remote controls, Tengu Ultra demonstrated advanced running skills, using wireless navigation technology to maintain a constant distance from the accompanying runner.



The second place winner was Noetix Robotics' 'N2', a startup founded by 27-year-old Jiang Zheyuan. The competition caught the attention of a large company, which then secured a contract to supply 700 robots.



However, N2, which used a different algorithm, finished third, but was penalized more than an hour for three 'substitutions,' putting it in fourth place, the last robot to finish the race. Noetix Robotics plans to file a complaint about the unfavorable rule changes.

Hang Qian, a 29-year-old runner who won the Tenkyu Ultra by 10 minutes, told foreign media outlet The Wall Street Journal, 'For ordinary people, the half marathon is a very tough sport and leaves you exhausted, but a robot can keep running by changing the battery. I'm excited to think that in the future, we may see robots competing in cooking, rock climbing, swimming and other competitions.'

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in Hardware,   Video, Posted by log1l_ks