The contestant and Tiangong team contestant Tiangong Ultra (second from right) were in the 2025 Beijing Yizhuang Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon.

　　Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Cao Can

　The young naughty boys player Shuanyan Power N2 rushed to the finish line in the game.

　　Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li He

　　Recently, the world's first personal robot half marathon was held in Beijing. On the 21.0975-kilometer track, humans and robots achieved "joining together" for the first time, and 20 robot teams from universities, research institutions and enterprises participated in the competition.

　　In the end, only 6 teams completed the game. How difficult is it for a humanoid robot to run a half-marathon? "The long-distance test of about 21 kilometers and uninterrupted running are huge challenges to many technologies of the robot." Liang Liang, deputy director of the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee, said that this competition adheres to the concept of "participation is victory, and finishing is heroes". "After all, this is not only a competition, but also a test and verification platform."

　　A game maps the technological breakthroughs and innovation landscape of an emerging industry. At present, humanoid robots are accelerating their emergence from the "show show" and entering the imagination space of factories, laboratories and even families, becoming the most eye-catching "new species" under the embodied intelligent trend.

　　Faster innovation

　　As the only finishing team that has not replaced the robot, the "Tiangong Ultra" robot that won the championship is undoubtedly the star of this competition. In April last year, an early version of this robot achieved the world's first "anthropomorphic running" of a pure electric full-size humanoid robot.

　　"We not only need to make the robot 'run', but also to make it 'run steadily and far'." Wei Jiaxing, spokesperson of Tiangong Team, introduced that in order to participate in this half marathon, the team overcomes hardware problems such as the stability of the body, lightweight design, long-term joint movement and prone to heat. It also further enhances the joint coordination ability, gait coordination ability and complex terrain passing ability through optimization of the motion control algorithm. "The robot participating in this competition is equipped with a new universal embossed intelligent platform 'Huisi Kaiwu', which realizes real-time perception and motion planning execution of the surrounding environment, with a maximum peak speed of 12 kilometers per hour," he said.

　　In order to adapt to long-distance running, battery life is a key factor. After about 50 minutes of running, the participating robot named "Xiaohai" of the Shanghai brothers team was the first to enter the robot supply station located 2.5 kilometers away from the track, and started again after changing the battery. The whole journey took less than 1 minute.

　　In order to allow the robot to "swap the battery without losing power" and to replace the battery while operating, the team specially designed a dual-battery power supply structure and intelligent power switching logic. "In experimental scenarios, if the battery is replaced, it will interrupt the debugging process and even affect the data continuity." The head of the team told reporters that this technological breakthrough not only ensures the endurance of the competition, but will also become an important support for long-term laboratory testing.

　　The Walker 2 team is from Shanghai. Ten years ago, the "Walker One" robot they developed had walked 134 kilometers uninterruptedly, setting a world record for the longest distance of foot robots. "In order to participate in this competition, the robot has been upgraded from its structure to its algorithm." Li Qingdu, head of the Walker 2 team, introduced that the "Walker 2" robot participating in this competition can achieve 6-hour dynamic battery life. The robot adopts a tendon (rope) drive mechanism, which effectively reduces its own weight while increasing the load.

　　The dual test of speed and endurance has spawned more innovative practices. Songyan Power N2 robot from the Little Naughty Team crossed the second line. Because of its 1.2-meter height and its steadily running posture, it is affectionately called "Child Brother" by netizens.

　　It is understood that Songyan Power (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., established in September 2023, sent two participating teams, "Tornado Boy" and "Little Naughty Boy" and all finished the competition. According to Jiang Zheyuan, founder of Songyan Power, the team members are mainly born in the 1995s, and have achieved the development of a number of robots in one and a half years.

　　The competition has ended, but the pace of innovation has never stopped. "The technical problems solved by all participating teams in the competition represent the new round of innovative practices and breakthroughs in China's humanoid robot industry," said Wei Jiaxing.

　　Industrial layout accelerates

　　In the more than two months since the Spring Festival, popular videos of humanoid robots have often appeared on social media, refreshing people's perception of embodied intelligence.

　　Embodied intelligence is a new word that has entered the public's vision in recent years. It emphasizes the close integration of intelligent systems and bodies, and realizes intelligent behavior through the interaction between the body and the environment. Humanoid robots are one of the typical application forms of embodied intelligence. At this year's National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the government work report clearly stated that it will establish a mechanism for future industrial investment growth and cultivate future industries including embodied intelligence.

　　Some factories, universities, scientific research institutions, artificial intelligence companies, etc. are taking the lead in using humanoid robots.

　　In the recently released video of UBL, two 1.72-meter-high robot Walker S1s stood face to face at the Zekr Automobile Factory. They nodded to each other at the same time, then spread their arms to jointly carry a material box that is 1.2 meters long, 50 cm wide and 40 cm high.

　　"The work efficiency of the robot is about 70% of that of skilled workers." Leng Xiaokun, founder of Leju Company, said that the robot "Kuafu" who has entered the car factory for training cannot do the complex work undertaken by senior technicians such as making precision screws, but does heavy, generalized, and highly repetitive work, such as carrying boxes of different sizes, colors, weights, and sizes, and sorting spare parts of different shapes.

　　Yushu Technology, which has not yet planned to let robots enter the factory, has recently been "new" on e-commerce platforms at home and abroad such as JD.com and AliExpress. Yushu products have two types: four-legged robot dogs are mainly aimed at C-end consumers, and humanoid robots are mainly aimed at developers.

　　Huang Jiawei, marketing director of Yushu, said that last year, Yushu humanoid robots were sold to more than 100 countries and regions, and their core users were universities, research institutes, technology AI companies, etc. Users do secondary development on Yushu hardware.

　　The industrial layout of humanoid robots is accelerating in many places across the country. At present, more than 10 local governments including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chongqing, etc. have established and prepared to establish industrial funds.

　　Wang Tianmiao, honorary director of the Robotics Institute of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said that robot development has been based on programming for a long time. AI models are released in 2022. It can simulate the human brain and have the ability to generalize and migrate, and promote the development of the new species of humanoid robots.

　　In the view of Zhang Jin, president of Shenyang Xinsong Robot Automation Co., Ltd., the greatest force in promoting the development of humanoid robots is the new generation of artificial intelligence, which allows physical robots to have a "brain" and gradually have the ability to generalize.

　　The "brain" needs to be upgraded

　　Humanoid robots are mainly dominated by three parts: "brain", "cerebellum" and "ontology". Taking the example of a robot that has a glass of water for someone to disassemble instructions, identify the environment, and plan the path, the "brain" requires that the "brain" have multi-level decision-making ability; to complete specific actions such as walking, picking, turning, and passing, the "brain" needs to be precisely controlled.

　　Some products unveiled this year have shown the improvement of key robot technologies. The Yushu robot performed in the Spring Festival Gala is considered to be "developed in cerebellum" and shows a high level of motion control. The "Huisi Kaiwu" platform released by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center attempts to build a general software system compatible with multiple ontology and multi-scenarios and has strong generalization capabilities.

　　The industry believes that the biggest bottleneck restricting the development of humanoid robots is still the "brain".

　　Zhang Weinan, deputy director of the Department of Computing at Harbin Institute of Technology and executive dean of the School of Artificial Intelligence, said that in terms of the "brain", there have been no breakthrough products like big models at home and abroad. In terms of software, high-quality and large-scale data for cross-scenarios are lacking. In terms of hardware, dedicated computing power chips for machine brains need to be further developed and popularized.

　　Recently, videos such as humanoid robots serving tea and pouring water and threading needles on grapes have been widely circulated on social media. Many people think that they can buy a robot as a nanny soon. Many industry experts are cautious about this.

　　The team of Zhang Rui, founder of Beijing Iron Man Technology Co., Ltd., was selected to participate in the China Astronaut Humanoid Robot Project in 2021. He admitted that compared to entering space, humanoid robots have a higher difficulty and longer cycles into the family. Because home is a complex environment - there may be elderly people, children, cats and dogs; the flatness and friction of different grounds vary, and there is a risk of falling when humanoid robots walk. He believes that the humanoid robots entering the family in the future cannot be a stack of existing mechanical and electronic structures, but should use new materials to form a new generation of muscles and bones.

　　In Leng Xiaokun's view, humanoid robots that enter the family in the future must be as cheap as home appliances and as smart as doctors. He said that it is only a matter of time before the cost of robots is reduced, but how to apply AI intelligence to the ontology is a difficult point in research.

　　(Comprehensive our newspaper and Xinhua News Agency's reporters Wang Haonan, Han Chunyao, and Liu Yi, Xinhua News Agency reporters Xiong Zhengyan, Yao Yujie, Gong Wen, Yang Siqi, Zheng Keyi, Ma Xiaocheng, and Guo Yujing)

[Editor in charge: Ran Xiaoning]