BEIJING: A Chinese humanoid robot set a new 100m sprint record of 8.86 seconds in Beijing on Tuesday (Aug 25), 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 US.
The previous robot record of 9.39 seconds had been set just three days earlier, on Saturday.
For comparison, the men’s 100m 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,” said Hong.
The record-breaking robot fell after hitting the finish line, a padded barrier, with sparks flying from its waist.