The First Human-Robot Marathon: Competition and Collaboration on the Run

The first marathon to bring together human runners with humanoid robots will take place, where they will compete in a 21-kilometer race. This marathon will be held in the Daxing district of Beijing in April 2025, with 12,000 human runners participating alongside a number of humanoid robots.

Participating humanoid robots must be able to walk on two legs like humans, without using wheels or any other assistive devices such as rotors. Their height should range between 0.5 and 2 meters, with the leg length, from hip to foot, not being less than 0.45 meters.

The robots can either operate independently using their built-in artificial intelligence, or they can be controlled remotely. Battery swaps are allowed during the race, and it is preferable, of course, that the swapping process is swift so the robots don’t lose too much time.

The participation of humanoid robots in such a marathon adds more fun and excitement to this event, which is primarily aimed at entertainment. However, it also enhances people’s awareness of the technological advancements that robots have achieved and their ability to interact with humans and perform tasks, potentially better than humans themselves.

The marathon also serves as a real test for robotic technologies, assessing the quality of each company’s products. Having become accustomed to watching videos of robots performing certain movements, seeing them all in one race provides a clear picture of each robot’s capabilities and flaws, thereby contributing to speeding up their development and improvement.

Thus, this event holds special importance, as it increases people’s awareness of robots, raises engineers’ and developers’ awareness of their product issues, and motivates them to develop and innovate new technologies. This, in turn, helps drive progress in this field, bringing people closer to these technologies and increasing their desire to adopt them.