China has organized a half marathon in which 21 robots participated. We have questions

Last Saturday a popular half marathon was held in Beijing in which there were some unique participants: 21 robots joined thousands of human runners to try to complete the 21,097 meters of the urban tour. The event has allowed to yield some conclusions about the Robotics art statusbut it has also generated new questions.

Varied robots. In the race They participated Humanoid robots of Chinese manufacturers such as Droidvp or Noetix Robotix. The designs and sizes varied significantly, and were from 1.2 m high models to others that measure 1.8 meters. One of them remarkably imitated the human appearance in a robot that even waded his eyes or smiled.

You by your side, I for mine. Although the organizers brought breast, stating that it was the first race in which humans and robots ran at the same time, in reality the Robots route was separated from that of human corridors. The robots were also accompanied by teams of engineers who monitored that their operation was correct (or that the batteries changed during the race).

Slow. At the moment the performance of biped robots in the race was modest, and everyone ran clearly more slowly than human corridors. The fastest robot It was the Tiangong Ultra of the Ubtech company in collaboration with the Beijing Humanoid Robots Innovation Center. The tour ended at 2:40 hours after exchanging his batteries three times and falling on one occasion. Only six of the robots ended up crossing the finish line, and most did not last long in the test.

Still far from humans. He was the only one that ended before the time limit was fulfilled to finish the test for human runners, which was 3:10 hours. The world record is in 56 minutes and 42 seconds, while a good time for human amateur runners is 1:45 hours for men and 2 hours for approximately women.

Varied disasters. As they point out In Wiredthe Tiangong Ultra and the second classified, the N2 of Noetix Robotics at least managed to end at a slow but consistent rhythm. Others were a disaster. It happened with a robot named Huanhuan that moved at snail speed while moving his head uncontrollably. Another call Shennong had to be disqualified (he used small wheels) but the serious thing was that he turned on himself after starting the race and He fell next to their human operators. In some cases the operators used adhesive tape to protect the “feet” of the robots, but also to hit the head of one of them when it fell during the race.

Critable autonomy. In addition, the robots were accompanied as we said of human operators. Some had control panels to go to the robots, and others went ahead to point out the way and remove obstacles from Enmedio. During the broadcast several spectators commented how operators seemed exhausted with all that operation to help robots to advance.

But running is not theirs. The truth is that these robots are not designed to run, but the objective of the companies that design them is to be able to execute a variety of tasks that have nothing to do with moving quickly. Even so experts indicate that this test demonstrates the evolution of the market, because a few years ago It was difficult until they were walking. Even Elon Musk launched a job offer to “teach Tesla’s Robot Optimus to walk”. That some can already run a half marathon It is a good proof that some companies have created especially robust models.

Important absences. Chinese manufacturers participated in the race, but many were absent reference companies In the market. Was not for example the Optimus of Tesla, but neither does the Atlas from Boston Dynamics, the Figure O2 of figure ai or the Apollo of Apptronik. There were also absences of large Chinese robotics companies Like Unitree (which did not officially participate, although two were used by other institutions), AGIBOTor the runner robot Star1 Robot was.

Is this for something? The test organized by Chinese institutions served to demonstrate the advances of some of the robotics companies, but it was also a clear demonstration of the limitations of these robots. As we said, these companies do not design these robots with this type of purpose, and specialization is usually a key aspect of current robots. However, this half marathon serves to boost new ideas among robots developers, which should undoubtedly pursue that intensive motor capacity for their projects.

Image | Xataka with Freepik

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