Humanoid Robots Outrun Bolt and Clear a Human High-Jump Record

Humanoid robots are racing, jumping and occasionally stumbling their way through the second annual World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, according to Neatorama. The event, which is scheduled to continue through Wednesday, features more than 2,000 robots competing in athletic contests. The most striking result came in the 100-meter sprint. Neatorama reports that the winning robot completed the race in 9.39 seconds, beating Usain Bolt’s human world record of 9.58 seconds. Another robot reportedly set a high-jump mark of 2.88 meters. That height exceeds the human record of 2.45 meters, attributed in the report to Cuban athlete Javier Sotomayor. Running and jumping were not the only memorable parts of the event. Video from the games showed robots struggling through awkward moments and occasional mishaps. Even so, the report noted that the machines were not repeatedly collapsing into one another, suggesting that their ability to move on two legs has advanced significantly. The competition presents a strange contrast: robots that can post elite-looking athletic times while still producing the kind of slips and blunders more commonly associated with early-stage machines. Neatorama described the robots as moving fast enough to make the familiar slow-moving humanoid machines of science fiction seem outdated. The reported records concern robot performances at the event; the source does not provide additional details about how the times or jumps were verified or about the specific machines that achieved them.