Humanoid robot beats Bolt's 100m record in pre-race test at Beijing games

China

Humanoid robot beats Bolt's 100m record in pre-race test at Beijing games

2026-08-22 17:44 Last Updated At：21:07

A humanoid robot named "Lightning" clocked 9.32 seconds in a pre-race 100-meter test on Saturday, faster than Usain Bolt's world record of 9.58 seconds, as the 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games kicked off at Beijing's National Speed Skating Oval.

The robot, developed by Honor's team and winner of this year's Beijing E-Town Humanoid Robot Half Marathon, hit a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second during the trial run ahead of the official competition. The games, which opened Saturday evening, will see over 2,000 robots from 666 teams across 16 countries on six continents compete over five days.

Lightning will compete in the 100-meter, 400-meter and 1,500-meter racing events. Unlike April's half-marathon that tested endurance, the games demand explosive power over short distances, prompting developers to fine-tune the robot's design.

"We extended the leg length by 10 centimeters to increase stride length and boost speed. The joint modules were also upgraded for greater torque and faster response times," said Gao Shiming, head of embodied perception at Honor's New Industry Incubation Division.

This year's games have raised the bar significantly, with most track events requiring robots to complete races fully autonomously, except for the 100-meter and 400-meter obstacle courses. Time limits have been tightened: robots must finish the 100-meter, 400-meter and 1,500-meter races within one minute, five minutes and 15 minutes, respectively. Whether sprinting straight or starting on a curve, each event will test the robots' vision systems, decision-making algorithms and algorithmic stability.

Droids demonstrate precision marching at world humanoid robot games opening

The second World Humanoid Robot Games, which kicked off in Beijing on Saturday, presented grand robot formations at its opening ceremony, demonstrating synchronized marching, formation changes, and acrobatic stunts.

The marching formation display tested the robots' motion control, autonomous obstacle avoidance, and integrated standing-walking-running capabilities.

Three formations of autonomous robots took part in the parade. The first was comprised of 80 robots marching with uniform steps, synchronized arm swings, and perfectly aligned ranks. The robots also changed formations while moving.

Achieving such synchronized group movement required enhanced environmental perception, precise individual spatial positioning, and group coordination. According to the training team, all of this depended on the robots' computing power.

"The main control system placed in the robot's chest cavity has ultra-strong mobile computing power. All calculations are completed on this platform before being sent to all end effectors to execute the commands. It uses a WiFi and 5G dual-line setup to ensure real-time communication stability. We trained them for nearly two months," explained Dong Hao, vice president of research and development at Beijing Accelerated Evolution Technology Co., Ltd.

Another formation of 50 adult-sized robots were trained to march to the main stage, with two breaking ranks to perform high-difficulty "Thomas flair" gymnastics moves and other stunts, before all robots exit in perfect unison.

These robots will also compete in soccer, running, high jump, and tug-of-war during the games, demonstrating humanoid robots' autonomous perception, motion control, and group coordination capabilities.