In a landmark achievement for robotics, the world's first humanoid robot half-marathon concluded in Beijing's E-Town on Saturday, with "Tiangong Ultra" – developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center – securing the championship. The robot completed the 21.0975-kilometer course in 2 hours and 40 minutes, maintaining a steady pace of 7 to 8 kilometers per hour throughout the race.
The route featured a mix of flat surfaces and slopes with a maximum gradient of 9 degrees. Competitors faced six left turns and eight right turns, including tight 90-degree angles, demanding precise balance during navigation. A final 1.5-kilometer straight stretch before the finish line tested sprinting capabilities, showcasing the robots' adaptability to varied conditions.
Twenty teams participated, fielding robots of drastically different sizes. Tiangong Ultra – the tallest competitor at 180 cm and 52 kg – mirrored adult human proportions, while the compact "Little Giant Robot" stood just 75 cm and weighed 10 kg, highlighting the spectrum of design approaches in this emerging field.
Described as the first open-environment long-distance endurance test for humanoid robots, the event aimed to foster collaboration across the industry chain. Organizers emphasized its role in accelerating technology transfer from labs to real-world applications through professionally crafted rules and human-machine coordination frameworks. By bridging innovation and practicality, the race seeks to unlock the "blue ocean market" of new and uncontested market spaces for humanoid robotics, driving breakthroughs in autonomous mobility and collaborative systems.
Who are they doing this for? Who wants this? The entire point of a marathon is that it's a test of your human body. What's the point in making a machine do it? Like we know machines can travel distance, cars and trains do it all the time. Honestly I would be insulted if I was running a marathon and ran past a robot
It's to showcase the robotics. Humanoid robots that can run long distances aren't easy to build. As the adage in computer science goes, the more intuitive it is for a human to do something, the harder it is for a computer.
Needless contrarianism
Comparing running to rolling is apples to oranges. A wheel needs a constant power output and it just works. Legs need super tight timings and tolerances on motion. Running needs more power and better tuned motion profiles, which carry over to things like quicker manufacturing. The prevalence of turns and wind requires the system to be adaptable and versatile. Being able to create a machine that sustains 40,000 cycles with 800 pounds of force whilst maintaining sub centimeter tolerances for each stride has spinoff benefits for tons of other applications.