Humanoid robot “Tiangong” crossed the finish line with runners at the Yizhuang Half Marathon in Beijing on November 10, 2024. A humanoid robot named “Tiangong” has been in the spotlight since the just-concluded Yizhuang Half Marathon in Beijing, where it crossed the finish line together with human participants.
The race began at 8:00 am with runners embarking on the challenging 21.09-kilometer route. As the athletes surged ahead, Tiangong, dressed in black, stood on the sidelines and waved its arms to encourage the participants.
Later in the race, as a large group of runners neared the finish line on Sunday, the robot Tiangong entered the track about 100 meters from the finish, acting as a “closing pacer” to help athletes cross the finish line together.
Produced by the National and Local Co-Built Embodied Intelligence Robot Innovation Center, Tiangong is a first-generation humanoid robot. Standing 163 centimeters tall and weighing 43 kilograms, it is the world’s first full-sized humanoid robot that runs on an electric drive.
“At large events like marathons, robots can perform a variety of tasks,” Jiang Hanya, an industry insider at a tech company based in Beijing, told the Global Times on Monday.
At crowded events, robots equipped with medical supplies can quickly move across the venue to provide emergency equipment such as defibrillators to those in need. They can also analyze an athlete’s condition via cameras and sensors to identify those requiring immediate medical attention, Jiang added.
Not only did the humanoid robot make an appearance at the Beijing Yizhuang Half Marathon, but four-legged robots also served as official pacers at the Hangzhou Marathon in Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province, on November 4.
The four-legged robot maintained a steady pace of around 9 minutes and 24 seconds per kilometer, with a top running speed of up to 6 meters per second. They were equipped with “half-marathon pacer” balloons to help runners maintain a scientifically optimized running rhythm.
According to Zhejiang Television, this marks the first time in international marathon history that robotic pacers have been used.
