Chinese robot Tiangong clocks sub-9-second 100 metres in Beijing

China’s Tiangong ⁠Ultra humanoid robot ran 100 metres in 8.86 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Tuesday, lowering the 9.39-second mark it set at the event’s opening.

The time was more than seven-tenths of a ⁠second faster than the 9.58-second men’s human world record set by Jamaican sprinting great Usain Bolt in 2009.

Tiangong Ultra, developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, achieved the new time in the semifinal of the large-size robot division.

The robots’ rapid improvement has been one of the main attractions at the second edition of the Beijing ‌event, where more than 2,000 robots from 666 teams are competing in 51 events including football, dancing and industrial-task contests.

Tiangong won the 100-metre (328-foot) race at last year’s inaugural games with a much slower time of 21.50 seconds, months after clinching victory at the world’s first humanoid robot half-marathon in Beijing last year with an amateur-level time of 2 hours 40 minutes.

“Reading that a motor-powered robot can run faster than a human is one thing,” said Li Hui, 26, an engineer with Fudan University’s table-tennis team. “Seeing it ⁠rush past you during training is completely different. You realise how impressive it ⁠is.”

Tiangong completed its sub-nine-second sprint by striking a thick mat placed beyond the finish line to stop the sprinting machines. A small fire appeared in the robot’s torso after it collapsed from the impact. In the other semifinal, a robot disassembled mid-race.

The sub-nine-second sprint followed Tiangong’s opening-day win on Saturday, when it overtook smartphone maker Honor’s Lightning near the finish after falling behind early. Lightning ⁠recorded 9.47 seconds, also under Bolt’s record. Honor had previously recorded ⁠a faster time of 9.32 seconds in a test run.

The Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center said earlier on Tuesday that its Tiangong robots had already beaten four human world records. Besides the 100m sprint, it pointed to a 400m time of 38.15 seconds, a 1,500m ‌mark of 2 minutes 21.64 seconds, and a 2.88-metre-high jump.

The centre’s shareholder list includes state-owned enterprises, several investment funds, AI and cloud giant Baidu, and smartphone and EV maker Xiaomi’s robotics unit, according to Chinese corporate ‌data ‌provider Qichacha.

China has designated humanoid robots a strategic emerging industry, as companies and policymakers seek to translate advances in artificial intelligence, motors and sensors into uses in manufacturing, logistics and services.

-Al Jazeera