Chinese state television said that a robot developed by the Chinese company “Honor” covered a distance of 100 meters in 9.32 seconds, surpassing the human record held by Jamaican runner Usain Bolt.
According to Reuters, the robot is named “Lightning,” and it achieved this time during a preliminary test for the second session of the “World Human Robotics Games,” which opened in Beijing on Saturday.
The robot’s maximum speed reached 14.5 meters per second, according to the report, surpassing Bolt’s 100-meter race record of 9.58 seconds, which he set at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin in 2009.
China is aggressively pushing the development of humanoid robots as a strategic emerging industry, with government and corporate bets that advances in artificial intelligence and equipment will accelerate their use in manufacturing, logistics and everyday applications.
In April, the same robot won the Beijing Half Marathon, a distance of 21 kilometers, with a time of 50 minutes and 26 seconds, which is faster than the human record for men at this distance.
During the half marathon, the robot was 169 centimeters tall, and its legs were 95 centimeters long. But researchers increased the length of his legs by 10 centimeters to 1.05 meters ahead of the World Human Robot Games.
Although the number seems remarkable, it remains part of robotics competitions and tests, and not a human race approved by athletics. But it reflects the speed of development of this sector, especially in China, where humanoid robots are transforming from technical demonstrations into machines capable of performing high-speed athletic movements.
