China pits robots against humans in half-marathon

Twenty-one humanoid robots joined thousands of runners at the Yizhuang half-marathon in Beijing today, the first time these machines have raced alongside humans over a 21km course.

The robots from Chinese manufacturers such as DroidUP and Noetix Robotics came in all shapes and sizes, some shorter than 120cm, others as tall as 1.8m.

The winning robot was Tiangong Ultra, from the Beijing Innovation Centre of Human Robotics, with a time of 2 hours and 40 minutes. The men’s winner of the race had a time of 1 hour and 2 minutes.

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