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A humanoid robot just beat a half-marathon record

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The world half-marathon record was broken at a race in China this weekend. But the winner was not an Olympian or even a competitive racer. It was a bright red humanoid robot. Surname? lightning.

The autonomous robot was competing in the Robots vs. Humans Half-Marathon race in Beijing, China, an annual event pitting the country’s top robotics companies against their human counterparts in a foot race testing.

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The Lightning was created by Chinese robotics and smartphone maker Honor. The company tested other walking robot variants in the race, including bots that won second and third place titles.

Mashable got an early look at Honor’s new line of AI-powered humanoid bots at the latest Mobile World Congress. The bots had impressive stability (many of these two-legged bots are prone to falling) and even had a crowd-pleasing dance performance. The company also launched a new “robot phone”, which features a robotic eye and arm that pops out of a smartphone to take photos and respond to requests.

During Sunday’s race, the company showed that new-age humanoid robots are not just dancers but also competitive athletes, with Lightning winning the gold medal in a race of 50 minutes and 26 seconds — six minutes faster than the fastest human ever recorded and nearly two hours faster than its time in last year’s race. Honor engineers explained that the robot’s rapid upgrades resulted from modeling its design after top athletes, including longer legs and an internal liquid-cooling system.

Chinese robotics companies have been accelerating the development of humanoid robots for the past several years in direct competition with American manufacturers. The Lightning’s record-breaking win was taken as a sign that the country’s investments could be paying off.

Still, many of the robots needed assistance to cross the finish line. Apart from interruptions and a few falls at the starting line, about 60 percent of the competing bots were operated remotely by their human teams.

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