A Chinese humanoid robot on Wednesday ran the 100 meters in 8.64 seconds, almost a second faster than Jamaican Usain Bolt's human world-record time, at the close of a five-day competition featuring robotic athletes, viral stumbles and industrial tests. Tiangong Ultra, developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre, won the large-size robot 100m final at the second World Humanoid Robot Games. The robot improved rapidly through the event, running 9.39 seconds and 8.86 seconds in qualifying before the final. Bolt's world record of 9.58 seconds was set at the 2009 world championships in Berlin. As in human athletics, the 100m was one of the highlights of the Beijing games, underscoring advances in robot mobility, balance and control systems. The event dubbed the "Robot Olympics" brought together more than 2,000 robots from 666 teams, most of them Chinese. Its 51 disciplines included sports contests as well as task-based challenges in simulated factories, restaurants, offices and emergency settings. Spectators said the robots appeared more capable than those seen at the inaugural games. "Last year's robots looked a little stiff and uncoordinated," said 34-year-old Niu. "This year, they are much better. They are like healthy newborn babies growing up." Yang, 29, said she could imagine robots becoming as commonplace as smartphones. "Maybe there will be one at home and one at work," she said, adding that robots could help with chores or care for elderly people. For developers, the games offered a public test bed for embodied artificial intelligence, which combines AI software with machines that can perceive and act in the physical world. He Wang, founder and chief technology officer of Galbot, said the competition would help teams improve their technology while showing what embodied AI systems could do autonomously. "It will provide a huge boost for industry development," he said.
