Greater than 300 humanoid robots collaborating in China’s second robotic half-marathon on Sunday will likely be dealing with harder terrain designed to check their technical developments, as Beijing seeks to develop the trade into a significant pillar of its financial system.
Over 70 groups, virtually 5 instances as many as final 12 months, will likely be competing within the 21 km (13 miles) race in Beijing that features paved slopes and parkland.
“It should definitely be attention-grabbing to see the progress in sturdiness of elements and battery lifetime in comparison with final 12 months,” mentioned Georg Stieler, Asia managing director and head of robotics at Stieler, a expertise consultancy.
“Humanoid robotic makers must discover a steadiness between high quality in merchandise that are nonetheless underneath fixed evolution and value stress.”
Whereas all of final 12 months’s entrants had been remotely managed, this time virtually 40% of the robotic contributors will navigate the course autonomously, the organisers have mentioned, in a high-profile demonstration of the trade’s rising capabilities. However the occasion can be prone to spotlight the challenges Chinese language companies face as they attempt to create robots that may successfully mimic human motion and efficiency. In final 12 months’s race some robots crashed and fell close to the beginning line, whereas the successful Tiangong Extremely mannequin, developed by the state-backed Beijing Innovation Middle of Humanoid Robotics in collaboration with UBTech, completed in 2 hours and 40 minutes, comfortably forward of its humanoid rivals however greater than double the time of the human winner of the standard race.
Tiangong Extremely will navigate “absolutely autonomously” this 12 months, relying solely on its sensors to keep away from obstacles, and intently mimic the human gait by means of large-scale information simulation coaching, the Middle of Humanoid Robotics mentioned in a press release.
“When the robotic runs at speeds approaching these {of professional} human athletes, the time window for notion and decision-making is extraordinarily quick, inserting very excessive calls for on computing energy, algorithms, and system response pace,” it mentioned. Social media movies of the robots coaching in Beijing at evening this month confirmed some fashions efficiently imitating human operating and reaching speeds of 14 km per hour, however others’ actions had been extra jerky and a few fell over or crashed into railings, suggesting they may wrestle to make it to the ending line.
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China dominates world humanoid robotic installations, accounting for greater than 80% of the 16,000 items put in worldwide in 2025, in accordance with Counterpoint Analysis. The highest U.S. vendor, Tesla, solely accounted for five% of worldwide humanoid installations, the report mentioned.
Home market leaders AgiBot and Unitree every shipped greater than 5,000 items final 12 months – the best globally – whereas Unitree has pledged to broaden manufacturing capability to 75,000 humanoid robots yearly.
Dancing disguised as working
Whereas the half-marathon would possibly make for entertaining viewing, consultants say the talents on show don’t translate to the widespread commercialisation of humanoid robots in industrial settings, the place handbook dexterity, real-world notion and capabilities past small-scale, repetitive duties are essential. At present, Unitree’s humanoid fashions are primarily used by analysis establishments, for dance performances and as interactive guides in service institutions, in accordance with its IPO prospectus.
And whereas some humanoids would possibly be capable to full a half-marathon, even in China they continue to be years away from widespread home or industrial deployment, consultants say.
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“The rationale our functions aren’t taking off is that the robots’ IQ is simply too low. The fashions are poor, their success charges are low,” mentioned Tang Wenbin, founding father of embodied intelligence startup Yuanli Lingji at a Beijing tech discussion board final month.
“Actually, the entire trade’s stage continues to be at a really elementary stage … Proper now, loads of what we see is ‘dancing disguised as working’.” The Chinese language authorities has named embodied intelligence, or bodily AI, as one of many key industries it needs to nurture because it seems to automation to spice up financial productiveness and improve conventional manufacturing.
Chinese language robotics companies are nonetheless struggling to develop the AI software program that will allow humanoids to match the effectivity of human manufacturing unit employees, whereas elements producers are contending with price pressures, analysts mentioned. As they search to enhance the software program, companies are ploughing assets into large-scale real-world information assortment, utilizing human employees fitted with sensors and deploying extra humanoids to manufacturing unit flooring.
In 2024, UBTech had fewer than 10 humanoids in factories. Final 12 months, that quantity jumped to greater than 1,000.
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This 12 months, it goals to launch 10,000 full-size humanoid robots, together with new fashions tailor-made for quite a lot of business settings, Chief Enterprise Officer Michael Tam mentioned throughout a media tour to the corporate’s Shenzhen showroom in southern China.
“Once we discuss AI, it depends on how a lot information, particularly high-quality information, we will accumulate,” he mentioned.