The Real Reason China's Robots Destroyed the Marathon Record

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]This is a winner of the [music] humanoid robot half marathon in 2026. 50 minutes and 26 [music] seconds. That's 7 minutes faster than a human world record. And a massive three times [music] faster than a winning robot from just last year.

[00:00:14]So, how exactly did it shave off two hours in a single year?

[00:00:19]To understand this, we need to first go back to last year. The winner of last year's race was [music] more like someone's grandfather than a competitive athlete. In fact, a 90-year-old man recently finished a half marathon in two hours and seven minutes. This robot being the winner also means other robots were even worse.

[00:00:37]There was one robot fainted at the starting line before the race even began. Another crashed just [music] 10 seconds in. Out of 20 teams that showed up, only six finished. Last year was more about completion than competition.

[00:00:51]This year was a completely different story.

[00:00:54]Over 100 teams entered [music] and the field was full of serious contenders.

[00:00:59]Unitree, the company behind the viral kung fu robot performance, brought their H1 model.

[00:01:04]Last year's championship [music] team came back with a machine running twice as fast as before. But neither of them made the top three.

[00:01:12]All three spots went to the same company. That's Honor. The Chinese phone company, once a sub-brand of Huawei.

[00:01:20]Reportedly, they have been in a humanoid space for less than a year.

[00:01:23]But the robot they built for this race, called Flash, is [music] built to run.

[00:01:27]Its legs are 95 cm long. The same bulk as you see in Usain Bolt, who measures between 102 and 105. The components that look like oversized leg muscles generate peak torque comparable to a Porsche sports car. So, yes, it has the raw speed to outrun any human on the planet.

[00:01:46]But speed alone is not enough. Marathon is also about endurance. [music] And that's one of the biggest challenges for robots.

[00:01:54]Some of you may think robots are just metals circuits [music] and should just keep going until the battery dies.

[00:02:00]But it's more complicated than that.

[00:02:03]Humanoid robots are built around joints, [music] just like us. And a half marathon means around 300,000 repetitive joint movements.

[00:02:11]That kind of mechanical [music] stress creates a very specific problem.

[00:02:15]Heat.

[00:02:16]Heat is also why some robots [music] in this race look so tired.

[00:02:20]Unitree model from last year saw knee joint temperature climb to 80° C mid-race. [music] When that happens, the robot had to slow down to protect the hardware. The same way your phone [music] is so slow on very hot day.

[00:02:34]And humans are actually well designed [music] for this. When we overheat, our hearts pump harder, pushing the warm blood towards the skin where it can cool down. That basic biological [music] principle ended up inspiring the thermal solutions that several teams used this year.

[00:02:49]Ohmni's approach was liquid cooling.

[00:02:52]A network of water tubes running through the robot's motors, keeping temperature stable at 31.5° C. [music] And if you look closely at those F1-style pit stops, beyond the battery swaps, the team is also changing ice packs on the robot's back >> [music] >> and spraying coolants on key areas of the body.

[00:03:10]That's the real secret behind how Flash maintains pace [music] through the entire race.

[00:03:15]Engineers mentioned that even after crossing the finish line, you could touch the motor and it would still feel cold.

[00:03:22]So speed and endurance cover most [music] of the challenge, but not all of it.

[00:03:26]The third piece is navigation. And this one is really underestimated.

[00:03:31]As humans, we barely think about how we know where to run. We read signs, we track the lane markings, and if all else fails, we just follow the person in front of us.

[00:03:41]Last year's robots were doing exactly that.

[00:03:44]The winner had a human pacer running ahead, wearing a QR code for the robot to track.

[00:03:50]The human pacer approach worked because the robots were slow enough and a human could stay in front of them.

[00:03:56]That option doesn't exist anymore where a robot is faster than any person alive.

[00:04:01]Although the organizers introduced a new rule this year, remote control robots will have a 1.2 multiplier applied to their final time. Basically penalizing the easy route. That was enough to convince about 40% of the [music] teams to attempt fully autonomous navigation.

[00:04:16]But apparently it wasn't easy. The course this year featured several 90° turns.

[00:04:22]There were human [music] runners on the same track and occasionally other robots falling over and creating obstacles.

[00:04:29]A lot of autonomous teams ran into trouble. This one crashed [music] into the equipment cart. A Unitree's robot fell right before the finish line and had to be carried off the course.

[00:04:39]Flash solved this by combining leader to map surrounding distances, visual sensors to read [music] ground textures, and GPS to track the exact positions.

[00:04:50]You can actually see the equipment mounted on its back, similar in principle to how Waymo's self-driving car perceives the world around it.

[00:04:57]The winner's [music] actual clock time was about 2 minutes slower than the remote control one, but once the time multiplier came in, the autonomous one came [music] out on top.

[00:05:06]Not every team was chasing the speed though.

[00:05:09]The virality of the race offered free marketing for a lot of other humanoid companies.

[00:05:14]One robot competed in human running shoes with surprisingly natural arm swings and stride [music] mechanics.

[00:05:21]So he took home the best humanoid gait award.

[00:05:24]A mini robot called Mini Pi, designed for education, ran the course with a baby bottle in hand and won the unofficial most hardworking robot award purely on charm.

[00:05:34]The crowd also had a great time cheering the robots and some people kept stopping mid-race to take photos whenever a robot had a spectacular fall. But after all this, you may [music] be still wondering, it's cool and fun, but what's the point?"

[00:05:49]Well, think of it like Formula One.

[00:05:51]Nobody needs a road car that can do what a F1 machine does, but technologies developed on the racetrack have a long history of making their way into everyday vehicles. Carbon fiber, for example, went from the racing circuit to high-performance sports cars, and it's now showing up in regular consumer [music] products.

[00:06:09]The Robot Marathon works the same way.

[00:06:12]If the robot hardware could survive the repeated stress, [music] heat, and mechanical load of running 21 km, you can be more confident that it will handle a factory floor for years without breaking down. Also, things like the liquid cooling system developed for the race could have direct applications in high-intensity manufacturing or logistics.

[00:06:33]Besides that, factory robots take human jobs, [music] but in this marathon race, the robots actually created more jobs for human.

[00:06:41]Each robot needed one driver, three operators, surprisingly two referees monitoring the team, let alone the medics running around carrying the robot off the course, >> [music] >> and the entire engineering teams who spent months building the hardware just to compete. So, what do you think? Would you want to see more races like this?

[00:06:59]Also, if you saw the Kung Fu robot show and ever wonder whether they autonomous, I have another video here for you.

[00:07:06]Otherwise, leave a comment, [music] share to anyone you think will be interested, and I'll see you in the next one.