Robots run with humans in race - 2nd June 2025

Robots ran in a 21 km race in China recently. Some of the robots were 1.8 metres tall, and some were only 1.2 metres. They ran with normal runners.

Each robot had a person with them. The person helped them to go the right way. There were one or two accidents on the way.

The robot 'Tiangong Ultra' was the first machine to finish the race. The company's technology expert is Tang Jian. He said they did lots of research. They used professional sportspeople.

Tang Jian: "We collected real-world running data from professional athletes and trained the robot so that its gait, cadence, stride length, and various postures could match those of professional runners as closely as possible."

This is the first race with both humans and robots. It was a chance for companies to show their products. The race tested the robots too. It showed how strong they were.

Tang Jian: "The main purpose behind doing the half marathon is to prepare for future - or rather, near-future - industrial applications. When our robots are deployed in factories, commercial settings, or everyday life, we expect them to work continuously, 24/7, without failure. Running the marathon is essentially an extreme test of reliability and stability."

The winner took only 62 minutes to finish. A human won the race. Huang Xiaoyu and her daughter watched. They know things are changing. They say humans won't always win. They think robots will take the prize.

Huang Xiaoyu: "Right now, humans still run faster, but in the future, do you think robots or humans will be faster? [Huang's Daughter: "Robots!"] Looks like in the future, it might just be robots that run faster."