The world’s first half marathon involving robots alongside humans was held in Beijing’s Yizhuang Economic and Technological Development Zone on Saturday. Thousands of runners were joined by 21 humanoid robots in the 21km race. China has held robot races before, but this was the first time humans and robots had run together, Reuters reported.
Image source: CGTN
According to RIA Novosti, the main condition for participation in the race for robots was a humanoid design and the ability to move on two legs without the use of wheeled devices. Unlike people, who started together, the robots started the race one by one with a difference of one minute, and a separate lane was allocated for them. In the race, the robots were accompanied by “trainers”-developers, since the conditions of the competition allowed both fully autonomous control and manual remote control.
According to the rules, the robots were allowed to replace batteries. Also, if necessary, it was possible to replace the robots themselves – in a relay format, but for each replacement a penalty of 10 minutes should be charged. At the same time, the robots had to strictly follow the specified route and all technical rules, and also should not damage the track or harm their rival robots and people. The total duration of the robot runners’ work was approximately 3 hours 30 minutes.
The robots, from Chinese manufacturers such as DroidVP and Noetix Robotics, came in all shapes and sizes, some less than 120cm tall, others 1.8m. One of the robots began the race by falling flat on the starting line, but after several minutes it began moving. Another crashed into a railing a few metres away, causing the developer accompanying it to fall as well.
The first robot to complete the race was Tiangong Ultra, with a time of 2 hours 40 minutes 42 seconds, almost an hour ahead of its closest competitor. Among human runners, the best time for men was 1 hour 2 minutes 36 seconds, and for women, 1 hour 11 minutes 7 seconds.
The Tiangong Ultra robot, weighing about 55 kg and 1.8 m tall, moved at a speed of 7-8 km/h during the race, although it can reach speeds of up to 12 km/h. It received a cash prize of 5 thousand yuan (about $700), while the silver and bronze medalists received prizes of 4,000 ($560) and 3,000 yuan ($420), respectively. The prize was presented to the winning robot by another humanoid robot.