Over 20 robots joined thousands of human runners in China on Saturday, marking the first time in history where androids raced alongside humans in a half-marathon.
The race was held in Beijing’s E-Town, a State-owned area dedicated to manufacturing high-tech items throughout the country, and had human runners separated from the machines in a parallel track.
DIVA DOWN!!!! (Source: Getty Images)
Chinese manufacturers including DroidVP and Noetix Robotics supplied the 21 robots for the race, which ranged in a variety of shapes and sizes, and trained for weeks before the event. One robot even touted a feminine and humanoid appearance that could also apparently wink and smile — in some major uncanny valley vibes.
The bipedal machines were each accompanied by human trainers — with some robots having to be physically supported by their biological counterparts — and some even rocked sports sneakers.
E-Town’s management committee deputy director, Liang Liang, told AFP that the race marked a “giant leap” for robotics technology.
“Getting onto the race track might seem like a small step for humans, but it’s a giant leap for humanoid robots,” Liang said.
“The marathon helps push humanoid robots one step closer toward industrialisation.”
Will this mark the beginning of a robot Olympics? (Source: Getty Images)
Engineers also told AFP that the goal of the race was to test the performance and reliability of the robots, and emphasised that the importance was for each of the robots to focus on finishing the race, not winning it.
A spectator of the event described the race as witnessing the “evolution” of artificial intelligence, per The Guardian.
“The robots are running very well, very stable,” the witness, who works in AI, said.
“I feel I’m witnessing the evolution of robots and AI.”
Look at that little guy go!! (Source: Getty Images)
The robotic winner of the race belonged to the Beijing Innovation Centre of Human Robotics and was named Tiangong Ultra, making the time of two hours and 40 minutes. The human winner of the half-marathon made the time of one hour and two minutes.
“I don’t want to boast but no other robotics firms in the West have matched Tiangong’s sporting achievements,” said Beijing Innovation Centre of Human Robotics CTO Tang Jian.
While it’s not likely in the very near future that we’ll see androids partaking in the Olympics or any other major sporting event any time soon, this race might just prove a robot’s strong potential in other industries.
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