Humanoid Robot Shatters Human 400m World Record at Competition
At the second World Humanoid Robot Games, held at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, the 'Tian Gong' robot clocked 38.15 seconds to win the 400m final in the large group category. This remarkable time surpasses the human men's 400m world record of 43.03 seconds, set by Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
That record had stood for a decade, making the robot's achievement particularly noteworthy. The event showcased significant advances in humanoid robot motion control and speed, demonstrating that machines can now outperform humans in specific athletic tasks.
The result has been praised by experts as a milestone for embodied AI and robotics research. It opens up possibilities for future applications in areas requiring fast and precise locomotion, though experts caution that such comparisons are mainly symbolic at this stage.