If you think your last half-marathon was rough, try running 13.1 miles on two legs you built last week.
That is roughly the task facing more than 100 humanoid robots that will take to the streets of Beijing’s Yizhuang District on April 19, in what organisers are calling the second edition of China’s Humanoid Robot Half Marathon. The full 21.0975-kilometre route winds through urban main roads, sections of an international auto racing circuit, and an ecological park, giving the machines a varied and unforgiving course to navigate.
The race is co-hosted by the Beijing Municipal People’s Government and China Media Group. Participation has jumped nearly fivefold compared to last year’s inaugural event, with more than 70 teams fielding roughly 100 robots. Beijing has been a busy hub for half-marathon news lately, with organisers still recovering from the Beijing Half Marathon pacemaking scandal.
An overnight dress rehearsal
Before race day, organisers put the field through a full-scale rehearsal in the city’s E-Town Economic and Technological Development Area from April 11 to 12. Robots ran the entire half-marathon distance under official timing and track rules, while support staff tested route navigation, equipment coordination, and emergency response procedures.
About 40 percent of teams are now relying on fully autonomous navigation, meaning the robots figure out the course on their own rather than being guided remotely.
“It adds a significant challenge for the robots,” said Liang Liang of the Chinese Institute of Electronics.
Just finishing the race is still considered a serious accomplishment. At last year’s event, only six of the 21 robots that started the race made it to the finish line. Overheating joints, drained batteries, and mechanical failures did in the rest.
Finishing counts as winning
To encourage more teams to stay in the race, organisers have rolled out a list of new prizes this year. There is a Best Endurance Award, a Most Beautiful Gait Award, a Best Design Award, a Best Perception Award, and even recognition for simply making it across the finish line. It is a contrast to the human side of the sport, where novelty runs like two Belgians racing 13.1 miles in banana suits still produce world records.
Some teams are arriving with barely assembled hardware and modest expectations.
“We assembled this robot just at 1PM today and immediately entered it into the competition,” said Yang Kechang of China Agricultural University, who added that his team would be happy to finish. Yang said his robot ran into overheating joints during the rehearsal, requiring cooling breaks during battery swaps. He believes software tweaks to the robot’s algorithms will help.
Xu Bo of Genisom AI said his team’s 1.3-metre-tall robot faced similar problems with overheating motors and batteries that emptied faster than expected.
A car-grade motor in a robot’s hip
Among the better-funded contenders is HONOR, a Chinese smart device maker that is sending two robots to the start line: “Lightning” and “Energetic Boy.” Lightning is the team’s speed play. It uses a self-developed integrated joint module designed to keep the robot’s stride long and its cadence high.
“The prerequisite for a high step frequency is having sufficient power to swing the leg. Therefore, both the torque and rotational speed are indispensable. Our key module here can achieve a peak torque of 400 Newton-meters, which is equivalent to a high-performance car,” said Yan Bin, chief architect of HONOR’s new business incubation department.
Energetic Boy is the slower of the two HONOR entries, but the team is aiming it at the Most Beautiful Gait Award thanks to its flexible wrists and a moonwalk the company has been showing off in promotional videos. In human terms, that is a long way off the blistering pace of the current 57:20 half marathon world record.
Xiao Jun, president of HONOR’s new business incubation department, said the racing project is really a proving ground for commercial applications still years away.
“In the future, our robot products can be used in scenarios like tour guide, shopping assistance and even housekeeping,” Xiao said. “The development of the robot industry chain will still require three to five years, or even five to 10 years to come. More importantly, it’s about building technological capabilities. If we can achieve seamless connectivity between robots and other products in the future, the users’ experience will be elevated to a whole new dimension.”
