Tiangong Ultra robot runs 100 metres in 8.86 seconds at Beijing games
China’s Tiangong Ultra humanoid robot set an 8.86-second 100-metre time at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing.
Beijing, China. Tiangong Ultra, a humanoid robot developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, ran 100 metres in 8.86 seconds in a semifinal at the World Humanoid Robot Games on Tuesday.
New 100-metre mark
The time lowered the 9.39-second mark Tiangong Ultra set at the opening of the event. It was more than seven-tenths of a second faster than the 9.58-second men’s human world record set by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt in 2009.
Tiangong Ultra competed in the large-size robot division. It won the 100 metres at the inaugural games last year in 21.50 seconds.
Competition events
The second edition of the Beijing event features more than 2,000 robots from 666 teams competing in 51 events, including football, dancing and industrial-task contests.
Tiangong also won the world’s first humanoid robot half-marathon in Beijing last year, recording a time of two hours and 40 minutes.
“Reading that a motor-powered robot can run faster than a human is one thing,” said Li Hui, 26, an engineer with Fudan University’s table-tennis team. “Seeing it rush past you during training is completely different. You realise how impressive it is.”
Race incidents and further times
Tiangong completed its sub-nine-second sprint by striking a thick mat placed beyond the finish line to stop the machine. A small fire appeared in its torso after it collapsed from the impact. In the other semifinal, a robot disassembled during the race.
Tiangong’s result followed its opening-day victory on Saturday, when it overtook smartphone maker Honor’s Lightning near the finish after falling behind early. Lightning recorded 9.47 seconds, also below Bolt’s record, while Honor had previously recorded 9.32 seconds in a test run.
The Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center said Tiangong robots had beaten four human world records, citing a 400-metre time of 38.15 seconds, a 1,500-metre mark of two minutes 21.64 seconds and a 2.88-metre high jump, in addition to the 100-metre sprint.
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