Humanoid robots set new athletic records at Beijing games

The second World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing featured significant advancements in robotics, with several machines setting new performance benchmarks. During the event, robots from Beijing-based X-Humanoid broke long-standing human athletic records, including a 100-meter sprint time of 9.39 seconds, surpassing Usain Bolt’s 9.58-second record, and a standing high jump of 2.88 meters, exceeding Javier Sotomayor’s 2.45-meter record.

Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd. participated by fielding its independently developed humanoid robots in the 100-meter sprint, standing high jump, and standing long jump. The company utilized the competition to evaluate gait algorithms, joint responsiveness, and stability. Zoomlion has already deployed various humanoid models, such as the bipedal Z01 and the wheeled Z03, across its smart factories for tasks including material sorting, precision assembly, and factory patrols.

The games, held at the National Speed Skating Oval, included over 1,000 competitions across 51 events, such as soccer, table tennis, and boxing. Participants included teams from 16 countries, including the US, Japan, and Germany. While demonstrating high-speed capabilities and AI-powered imitation learning, some demonstrations also highlighted the technical challenges of the field, with reports of robots experiencing less graceful stops or mechanical issues during high-speed maneuvers.