Chinese humanoid robot that beat Usain Bolt’s 100-meter sprint record does it again, but even faster

BEIJING — A Chinese humanoid robot set a new 100-meter sprint record of 8.86 seconds in Beijing on Tuesday, beating its robot competitors — and the fastest recorded human time. The race was part of China’s World Humanoid Robot Games, an Olympic-style competition now in its second year in Beijing. The event is also a showcase for China’s rapid advances in robotics amid an intensifying technology rivalry with the U.S. The Tiangong Ultra humanoid robot beat its own record of 9.39 seconds it had set just three days earlier at the event’s opening on Saturday. For comparison, the men’s 100-meter world record is 9.58 seconds, set by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt in 2009. Experts are amazed to see such progress in the humanoid robot industry. “This is a significant milestone — not simply because the robot ran faster than a human, but because of what it takes to make a bipedal robot run at this speed,” said Dennis Hong, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. “As speed increases, balance, control, impacts, actuator performance and mechanical robustness all become much more challenging,” Hong said. The record-breaking robot fell after hitting the finish line, a padded barrier, with sparks flying from its waist. Hong pointed out that the fall leads to more meaningful and difficult questions: whether robots can move and stop safely, recognize unexpected obstacles, recover from mistakes and continue working, the capabilities that ultimately make them more useful. The games feature over 1,300 competitions involving more than 2,000 robots in 51 events like running, long jump and table tennis, as well as ballroom dancing. Unlike the traditional Olympics, the robots also compete in teams in real-world scenarios, including household tasks, hotel services and emergency response. “’Housekeeper’ and ‘caregiver’ robots are still in the pilot and validation phase,” China’s official newspaper People’s Daily said Monday, but “challenges are precisely where the focus of development lies. … China’s robotics industry is evolving toward higher quality and innovation.”