By Globe News Report Staff
A Chinese Robot Tiangong has now run faster than any human in history. China’s Tiangong Ultra completed a 100-metre sprint in 8.86 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Tuesday. That’s more than seven-tenths of a second faster than Usain Bolt’s 9.58-second world record, set by the Jamaican sprinter in 2009.
A Rapidly Improving Robot
Tiangong Ultra set the new mark in a semifinal race. It beat its own earlier time of 9.39 seconds, which it had set just days earlier on the event’s opening day. The robot was developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center.
Tiangong’s progress has been dramatic. Last year, it won the same 100-metre race at the games’ first edition with a much slower time of 21.50 seconds. It later completed the world’s first humanoid robot half-marathon with an amateur-level time of 2 hours 40 minutes.
Not the Only Fast Robot
Tiangong isn’t alone in breaking Bolt’s record. A robot called Lightning, made by smartphone company Honor, also ran under 9.58 seconds earlier at the event, finishing in 9.47 seconds. The Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center said its robots have now beaten four separate human world records, including times in the 400m and 1,500m, along with a high jump of 2.88 metres.
A Rough Stop at the Finish Line
Tiangong stopped its sprint by running into a padded mat placed past the finish line. After the impact, the robot fell and a small fire briefly appeared in its torso. In a separate semifinal race, another robot came apart mid-sprint. Neither incident affected the results of Tiangong’s record run.
Part of a Larger Robotics Push
The event featured more than 2,000 robots from 666 teams, competing in 51 events including soccer, dancing, and industrial task challenges. China has named humanoid robots a strategic industry, as companies and the government look to apply advances in AI, motors, and sensors to manufacturing, logistics, and other real-world uses.
Sources: Al Jazeera