China has defined new competition rules for the world's first humanoid robot half-marathon as part of the Beijing E-town Half-marathon set to be held on Sunday.
The groundbreaking event marks a major milestone in the development of embodied AI and humanoid robotics.
Spanning over 21 kilometers, the half-marathon will require participating bipedal robots to execute approximately 250,000 precise joint movements.
Most of the participating bipedal robots will have their batteries replaced or even be fully replaced during the competition.
According to the competition rules, any robot that does not change its batteries at the supply station will receive a time penalty. Replacing a robot entirely during the competition will also incur a time penalty.
"The competition adopts a comprehensive timing method to calculate the final scores of participating teams, which is determined by subtracting any penalty time for rule violations from the total time taken from the starting point to the finish line. This could bring about the scenario where the first robot to reach the finish line may not necessarily be ranked the first in the final standings," said Wang Guolin, deputy head of the robot group of the half-marathon race.
The medals for the competition made their first debut on Wednesday. Participating bipedal robots can receive their medals as long as they complete the race within three and a half hours.
Beijing defines new competition rules for world's first humanoid robot half-marathon
China aims to achieve secure and reliable supply of key core artificial intelligence (AI) technologies by 2027, with its industrial scale and empowerment level remaining among the world's forefront, according to a recent government action plan.
The plan, jointly issued by eight departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the National Development and Reform Commission, outlines an ambitious push to deeply integrate AI with the manufacturing sector, foster new quality productive forces and comprehensively empower new industrialization. By 2027, the plan targets the deep application of three to five general-purpose large AI models in manufacturing, the development of specialized, full-coverage industry-specific large models, the creation of 100 high-quality industrial datasets, and the promotion of 500 typical application scenarios.
It also aims to cultivate two to three globally influential ecosystem-leading enterprises, a batch of specialized and sophisticated small and medium-sized enterprises, and a group of enabling service providers proficient in both AI technology and industry know-how.
Furthermore, China plans to build a world-leading open-source ecosystem, enhance security governance capabilities, and contribute Chinese solutions to global AI development.
The document outlines measures including promoting the coordinated development of AI chips' hardware and software, supporting innovations in model training and inference methods, fostering key industry-specific large models, and deeply embedding large model technology into core production processes.
The plan also emphasizes making breakthroughs in key technologies such as security protection for industrial model algorithms and training data protection.
China aims for secure, reliable supply of AI core tech by 2027
