Chinese robot runs 100M sprint quicker than Usain Bolt's world record

mbeavitt

It's crazy how these records are just quietly being broken by humanoid robots. What's next? What a time to be alive.

zeristor

Robo Olympics? Humans on enhancements vs robots?

feverzsj

They ran so fast that most of them crashed into pieces in the end.

EA-3167

Robot Wars with government funding and a coat of paint? Ok then.

AngryData

How many times/long can it do that before being recharged? Can it do other walking and mobility tasks? The headline by itself doesn't really mean much, anyone can build a purpose-built robot to beat specific human limitations. The question is can it have that kind of performance without completely foregoing most other tasks and abilities.

joduplessis

This is super exciting for fast message delivery. I'm so tired of my messages taking 2 weeks to deliver! 3000km shouldn't take that long! Personally I'm really looking forward to a world where my message can take maybe even a week to deliver to someone 2000km - 3000km away. What a time to be alive.

bena

It’s the distance rather than the speed that is impressive. Or, to be more accurate, the distance at that speed. Because, of course the machine which does not tire and is deliberately designed to be durable and exceed natural human tolerances are better than humans. Cranes can lift far more than the strongest man. But I understand that historically, bipedal machines have had balancing issues. The number of slight adjustments needed are significant. And doing it while at that speed and also not tumbling over is an achievement.

SoftTalker

A machine is stronger and faster than a human? Shocking. Next we'll learn that cranes can lift heavy loads faster than a human with ropes and pulleys.

m3kw9

I'm not impressed if you are gonna compare a strength and pretty 1D dex of a machine to a human.

graemep

Its a nice demo of advances, but its not hugely significant in the way some comments here make it out to be. We have had machines faster than humans for a long time. We have had animals faster than humans for longer than there have been humans.

seydor

One day that robot will invent the wheel

skeledrew

There will be no escape. Prepare to be outperformed in all the things.

utopcell

I don't want to alarm people but I hear they now have automobiles that can outrun humans.

shevy-java

Well - in a way this is nice, just for documented record, even though a bit useless too. However had, I watched it, and I have some problems here. First: these robots have barely any head. I think for a humanoid robot, you need to have a proper head with some weight in relation to the rest, otherwise it is just SIMULATING being humanoid. Then the feet; this is also a problem. Specifically the feet are not like human feet at all, they are more like stubs or elongated stubs with push-back being made-super easy. Usain Bolt does not have such short jokes of feet, so this comparison is unfair. Same with the hip area - I am sorry, but the hip structure of these robots is ABSOLUTELY not at all like a human. I am not even calling these humanoids. Don't get me wrong, it is good that science and technology progresses and such robots may do things that robots solely with a wheel alone, may be unable to do, such as running, climbing, you name it. But I simply can not call them "humanoid". They are, IMO, simply not humanoid and not even humanoid-like. For "proper" science fiction, have a look at the first Blade Runner movie, but also the first terminator. Initially Cameron thought Arnold was unfit because he was massive and the infiltrating cyborg should melt into the environment easily (which was better in Terminator 2, T1000 was kind of more "logical", but I hated the background storyline in Terminator 2, it made no sense to me, no clue why people preferred that over the original terminator movie). I am aware that these running robots don't aim to be a look-alike replacement, but they simply also should not be called humanoid robots right now. They simply are not humanoid. Thus one should not call them that way.

timedude

Nice, but can it outrun Tom Cruise?

bethekidyouwant

Both robots were carried away on stretcher afterwards…

drnick1

In other news, my Corolla also travels faster than Usain Bolt.

throw101010

All the snarky comments about cars or other vehicles doing it faster seem to miss the point that none of these attempt to mimic/improve on the running movements of humans... but I guess you do you, this is an impressive robotics feat in my oponion.

mmooss

If this Silicon Valley forum is full of people denying the achievement, and the US goverment is banning the technology and competition, I expect the engineers and scientists in China will pull much further ahead. The US is behaving like an industry incumbent, like Blackberry when the iPhone came out. That the US could fall behind on technology seems to have not crossed many minds. It will be very hard to overcome that first mover advantage.