Robot runs 100m faster than Usain Bolt. An amazing 9.39 seconds!!!

Adam Spencer
11 minutes ago
3 min read

It has been an incredible year for robotics. A robot shredded the human half marathon world record earlier this year (50 minutes 26 seconds versus 57:20!). Weeks later, Sony dropped a robot that can beat the world’s best table tennis players. And now Usain Bolt himself would be watching a chunk of metal and wires zip past him. Where will this all end?

(First published on my Substack where you can get #NerdNews, marvellous maths and general geekery.)

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/312867_b5f75074e22b4d629f52572bdec31fd5/720p/mp4/file.mp4

On your sparks.

Saturday 21 August, at the blue riband event of the second World Humanoid Robot Games a robot ran the 100m in 9.39 seconds.

Tiangong Ultra, built by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre and racing under the X-Humanoid banner, blitzed the field at Beijing’s National Speed Skating Oval.

Quick reminder, in Berlin, 2009, Usian Bolt destroyed the (human) world record posting 9.58 seconds for the hundred.

Honor’s Lightning led early, got run down near the line, clocking 9.47.

Honor claims Lightning covered 100 metres in 9.32 in a test run.

This makes it a massive year for Lightning, which also set the half marathon robot record in April.

And this was only the heat. Could they go faster in the final?

These times are giant leaps forward from just 2022 when a legs-only bipedal robot from oregon State University, named Cassie ran a then mindblowing 24.73 seconds for the hundred. In fact by last year’s Games, Tiang Unltra had imporve that to just 21.50. To halve that time in a year is insane.

“The first bipedal robot to learn to run, but it won’t be the last.” — Jonathan Hurst, chief technology officer, Agility Robotics, 2022.

Turns out you were spot on there JH.

Stopping is the hard part.

The videos currently melting the internet do have an hilarious end.

As opposed to Usain Bolt et al, none of these robots can pull up. They cross the line at full pace and slam into a padded wall just beyond the end of the track.

There is no dip at the tape, no easing down over the last ten metres and no Thunderbolt pose for the cameras.

In a training run last week one hit hard enough to fold in half and throw sparks.

“Some robots may not run elegantly or fall over and that’s normal.” — Jiang Guangzhi, director, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology.

Turns out you are spot on there JG.

Mostly a home meet.

Possibly the most amazing stat out of the whole meet, isn’t a time or a height or a distance. It’s this. Of the 666 teams and 2,056 robots, hailing from 16 countries across six continents, including Aussie from UNSW and Newcastle University, a staggering 96% of the field is Chinese.

China is fielding 1,975 robots across 641 teams, drawn from 157 companies and 200 universities or research institutes.

This is all part of President Xi Jinping’s Humanoid Robot and Embodied AI Real-World Training Initiative. Xi has set a strict target to put more than 10,000 humanoid robots into commercial use and real-world field deployment by the end of 2026.

And from what I can tell, when Xi Jinping sets a ‘strict target’, it really is best that target is met, if you know what I’m saying.

So we are cooked yeah?

The explosion in robotic performance in 2026 really has to be noticed.

In the best scenario we have robots going into disaster zones not humans. Robots doing dangerous and potentially injurious human work: everything from hauling stock in factories to helping nurses adjust heavy patients in hospital beds.

In the worst case, that robot clocking 9.39s for the hundred is chasing you … and it doesn’t just want to chat.

One thing beyond dispute is that the world of robotics post 2026 will look nothing like before.

Robot runs 100m faster than Usain Bolt. An amazing 9.39 seconds!!!

On your sparks.

Stopping is the hard part.

Mostly a home meet.

So we are cooked yeah?

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