Mechanical "athletes" at the world's first half-marathon for humanoid robots in Beijing on Saturday bumped into everything from battery failures to nosedives, but nevertheless they displayed remarkable innovation, persistence, and human ingenuity.
Early on Saturday morning, all robots rallied at the starting line of the remarkable humanoid half-marathon, geared up for the upcoming challenge. Some underwent pre-race maintenance and checks, while other "athletes" casually interacted with onlookers and human runners.
Despite all the preparation, accidents quickly cropped up after the match began. One of the robot participants started to veer off course, swerving around and heading toward the greenbelt. The operator tried to bring it back with the remote control immediately and even yelled at it to walk straight.
Then another robot suddenly lost control and nearly crashed into a fence. Its operator had to lift it up to rescue it, triggering laughter from the crowd.
Some of the robots faced more severe incidents. Among all 20 participants, one did not even make it to start due to battery problems.
"You can see that it is getting red, which indicates that it has lost power. All of its motors are dysfunctional. We are not confident enough to get high rankings, (because) it just cannot move fast enough. But we have paid more attention to auto-follow and body recognition, and other related detections. We have made upgrades in these aspects," said Wang Danhui, a technician with one of the robot teams.
Finally, only six teams completed the marathon, and one of them, a Noetix N2 robot, had a heavy fall in racing and bumped its head off. This incident went viral online, as the robot promptly stood up and continued running amidst cheers from the crowd. It became the third to pass the finish line.
"As for its head, we have actually moved its critical components inside its body. It was mainly because of overheating (that caused its head off). So, even if it falls and hits its head off again, it does not matter much. In the second half of the race, we managed to cool the robot down throughout the range. Our plan is to continue optimizing the product, and make the robot more stable and solid," said Li Shengtao, a member of the N2 robot team.
Despite all the unexpected incidents, the crowds kept cheering for all the humanoids, showing their support for the future development of science and technology. Many parents also brought their children to witness the milestone.
"I am also a programmer, so I am also heavily interested in the cutting-edge sci-tech of robots. I also want my child to feel for the development of frontier sci-techs. I hope that by exposing her to this kind of environment early on, it can spark her curiosity and guide her to pursue more advanced fields in science and technology," said Luo Da, a father who brought his daughter to watch the event.
Half-marathon exposes huddles in development of humanoids
