Chinese robot clocks 8.86 seconds at World Robot Games
Humanoid Robot Beats Humans in 100m Sprint
- Humanoid robot shatters human sprint benchmark, clocking 100m in 8.86 seconds
- Over 2,000 bipedal robots from 16 nations compete across 1,300 games
- Maintaining dynamic equilibrium and safe braking remains critical engineering challenge
Surpassing human athletic limits, a Chinese-engineered humanoid robot has established a new record by completing a 100-meter sprint in just 8.86 seconds. The milestone was achieved at the ongoing 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, an Olympic-style five-day technical competition organized by the Beijing Municipal Government and associated institutions.
In 2009, Usain Bolt of Jamaica set a human world record of 9.58 seconds in the 100-meter dash. This past Saturday, in a five-day competition organized jointly by the Beijing Municipal Government and several organizations, a robot surpassed that record on August 26th. Earlier, in the preliminary rounds, one robot clocked 9.32 seconds and another, three days prior, finished in 9.39 seconds, already beating last year's record of 21.50 seconds. However, in the final stage, a Chinese robot shattered all records by completing the race in 8.86 seconds.
Upon crossing the finish line, the machine collided with a soft barrier and suffered a fall, emitting sparks around its waistline. Robotics specialists emphasized that post-sprint deceleration and dynamic stabilization present significant biomechanical hurdles.
Commenting on the engineering complexity, Professor Dennis Hong of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) stated, "Engineering a bipedal robot to sprint at such velocity is an extraordinarily complex undertaking. As velocity escalates, sustaining equilibrium, absorbing mechanical impact, and controlling kinematic stability become progressively difficult, alongside managing actuator power and battery discharge rates."
Technical experts underscored that beyond sprint benchmarks, real-world deployment depends on operational safety, situational obstacle avoidance, and rapid recovery from balance disruptions. The event brings together over 2,000 robots from 666 teams across 16 countries including Japan, competing in over 1,300 categories such as football, long jump, and table tennis. Driven by state-level initiatives identifying robotics as a major strategic growth driver, commercial and research enterprises are rapidly accelerating technological frontiers in humanoid hardware.
//DBTech/NHK/SME/EMS//
