Beijing's second World Humanoid Robot Games wrapped up its five-day run on Wednesday at the National Speed Skating Oval, the venue built for the 2022 Winter Olympics, after more than 2,000 humanoid machines from 16 countries competed in 51 events ranging from sprinting and soccer to industrial assembly drills.
The headline-grabbing moment came in the 100-meter dash, where a robot built by China's X-Humanoid crossed the line in 9.39 seconds — faster than Usain Bolt's 9.58-second world record from 2009. A machine from smartphone maker Honor went even quicker in trial runs, posting 9.32 seconds and hitting a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second, according to ABC News. For context, the previous Guinness-recognized speed mark for a two-legged robot, set in 2022, was a comparatively pokey 24.73 seconds.
Organizers also touted a standing jump of 2.88 meters, well past Javier Sotomayor's 2.48-meter running high-jump record — though that comparison mixes two different disciplines, since Sotomayor's mark came from a running approach and the robot's from a stationary launch. It's the kind of asterisk that has followed the Games since they debuted last year: impressive numbers, produced by machines optimized for a single motion rather than the all-around athleticism the comparisons imply.
The event wasn't all triumph. Several robots toppled at the finish line and had to be carried off on stretchers, and at least a few caught fire mid-competition, per wire reports. Michael Milford, a robotics professor at Queensland University of Technology, cautioned that most of what the robots demonstrated doesn't translate into practical, real-world use — the machines remain far better at scripted stunts than at, say, folding laundry.
Still, for the crowds who packed the Oval, the spectacle needed no caveats.
These sports are perfectly normal for humans, but now robots can do them. I find it amazing.
Yang Shangzheng, spectator
China has positioned the Games as a showcase of its domestic robotics industry amid intensifying technology competition with the United States, with a third edition already being planned for next year.