In addition to welcoming 12,000 runners, the race also featured 21 robot participants.
Though they didn’t outrun the human competitors, they may have outshone them.
The only design rule for the competing robots was that they were bipedal instead of running on wheels.
Otherwise, it was a free for all, resulting in interesting design choices with mixed results.
Among the strategies used included robots with kid-sized sneakers, or shoes made out of duct tape.
Others used knee pads to prevent them from breaking in case they took a tumbleand many of them did.
Wiredreportsthat only six of the 21 robots finished the race.
One robot needed a cooling pad to make it to the end while others had liquid sprayed on them.
The winner was a robot named Tiangong Ultra, designed by UBTech and the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center.
Despite being the robo victor, its path was not free of mishaps either.
It fell down once and its team had to change its batteries three times.
Tiangong Ultra also stood out for being the tallest robot at 5 feet 9 inches.
Meanwhile, its shortest competitor was only 2 feet 5 inches.
It was undoubtedly a unique race, showing how much robot tech has advanced recently.
And now we do, and this will be a good demonstration of that.
Still, it was definitely interesting to see them follow instructions in a challenging environment.
As such, the half-marathon provided them with a platform to showcase their hardware robustness.
Ultimately, there’s no need to worry, a robot will likely not beat you in a race.
Not right now anyway.
