Faced with humans, robots still have progress to do. This is the case in several areas, including that of the race. As announced in March, humanoid robots participated in a half marathon in Beijing this Saturday, April 19. Humans (on a separate track) also participated in this event, which was the first in these machines.
Organized in the “E-Town”, an area of technological development of the capital, this half marathon was an opportunity for China to show its advances in robotics. The country wants to become a world leader in the field of humanoid robots by 2027, recalls the Wall Street Journal.
However, everything did not come out as planned. Of the 21 machines participating in the half marathon, only four finished the race (21 kilometers) in the four hours, as reported by Bloomberg.
A race with several unforeseen events
Among them, “Tiangong Ultra” was the first robot to cross the finish line, in 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds. Or, more than double the time that took the winner in humans (1 hour, 2 minutes and 36 seconds). Custom to the half marathon, this model was the largest robot of competition (1.80 m for 52 kilos).
If he finished the race, his career was far from being perfect. Not only “Tiangong Ultra” fell, he had to change his battery three times to cross the finish line. The teams in charge of these machines were allowed to replace their batteries during the race, but with a penalty of 10 minutes each time. Despite this, the technology director of the Beijing Innovation Center in Humanoid Robots, an institution that designed the robot, declared himself “satisfied.”
“We had compiled data from professional corridors and we had trained the robot to adapt its passage, its cadence, its amplitude of the steps and its position to approach that of an athlete,” he added.
Robotic corridors were also accompanied by human operators to help them in case of problems. In the case of “Tiangong Ultra”, an instructor ran in front of him to imitate his movements. Other robots were reviewed by controllers.
Several have had accidents. One of them, similar to a transformation, has deviated from his career and hit a barrier. Another, with female appearance, collapsed shortly after the game.
Little Giant, the smallest robot (75 centimeters) stopped briefly after the smoke began to get out of his head. The team in charge said he did not expect the half marathon to end, but only runs the first kilometers because it was too slow. And, it was not the only machine that was not quick enough to finish the race within timely time.
Source: BFM TV
