BEIJING – In a groundbreaking achievement at the World Humanoid Robot Games, held in Beijing on Saturday, Chinese-designed humanoid robots outdid human records, including surpassing Usain Bolt’s legendary 100-meter sprint time.
The event has drawn an impressive lineup of over 2,000 humanoid robots, according to statements from the organizers.
Spanning five days, this year’s games highlight China’s growing prowess in robotics amid intensifying technological competition with the United States. The event features 51 categories and more than 1,000 competitions, ranging from running and table tennis to soccer skills.
Taking place at the National Speed Skating Oval, specifically built for the 2022 Winter Olympics, the games coincide with the 2026 World Robot Conference. Here, businesses are presenting approximately 3,000 innovations, including advanced humanoid robots.
With China manufacturing the majority of the planet’s humanoid robots, the U.S. has increased its scrutiny of these technological products emanating from China.
Last month, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced a ban on imports of new foreign-made humanoid robots. The FCC cited national security reasons in a move that targeted China. The Pentagon recently also added Unitree, one of China’s leading humanoid robot makers, to its list of companies that it deemed have ties with the Chinese military. Beijing has hit back at the accusations.
At Saturday’s opening of the robot games, the organizer and robot makers said that Chinese humanoid robots defeated human world records, as hundreds of humanoid robots marched in formation onto the field in a massive display of synchronized coordination.
At a 100-meter sprint, a humanoid robot achieved a result of 9.39 seconds, beating the human record of 9.58 seconds set by Jamaican athlete Bolt in 2009.
In a standing high jump, a humanoid robot was able to reach 2.88 meters, well above the 0.95 meters best result by a humanoid in last year’s first edition of the games. It surpassed the human high jump record of 2.45 meters set by Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor in 1993.
Both robots were from Beijing-based X-Humanoid.
Before the opening, a humanoid robot from Chinese smartphone company Honor completed a 100-meter sprint in a record of 9.32 seconds during a trial of the games, the company said, at a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second.
Still, experts say humanoid robots are still mostly used for demonstrations, performances and research — at least for now — and it will still take time to achieve mass real-world deployment.
Some spectators at the robot games said they were excited about the humanoid robots’ quickly improving abilities.
Humanoid robots are “evolving rapidly,” said Li Yanfeng, an education worker and a Beijing resident.
“At first, I wasn’t very accepting of artificial intelligence. I was even a bit resistant to it, because of the possibility that it might replace or displace humans,” she said. “But now that I see this development is unstoppable, I decided to come and take a look.”
“These sports are perfectly normal for humans, but now robots can do them. I find it amazing,” said Yang Shangzheng, another spectator.
Liu Tao, who was watching the games with his son, said that he was hoping to see “the best robots China currently has to offer.”
This year’s robot games — which the organizer said has 16 countries participating, among them Germany, Japan and the U.S. — also include other events such as weightlifting and tug of war.
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Chan Ho-him reported from Hong Kong. Olivia Zhang and Liu Zheng contributed to this report from Beijing.
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