Chinese Humanoid Robot Tiangong Ultra Beats Usain Bolt's 100-Meter Time With 9.39-Second Sprint
A humanoid robot has posted a faster 100-meter time than Usain Bolt's famous 9.58-second world record. At a preliminary heat of the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Saturday, Tiangong Ultra, built by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, completed the sprint in 9.39 seconds. Honor's own humanoid, Lightning, followed closely at 9.47 seconds. What Happened The result came out of a qualifying round, not a final, at an event specifically designed to test humanoid robots across athletic-style categories. Tiangong Ultra's 9.39-second run and Lightning's 9.47-second run both undercut Bolt's 2009 record set at the World Championships in Berlin, a mark that has stood in human athletics for over 15 years. It's worth being precise about what this comparison actually means. These are robots running on a track built for the competition, timed under the games' own rules rather than IAAF regulations. Bipedal robots also move very differently from...