BEIJING – China’s rapidly advancing humanoid robotics sector hit a new milestone this week, when a cutting-edge robot sprinter broke its third consecutive 100-meter sprint record on the final day of the country’s second annual World Humanoid Robot Games, closing out a five-day event designed to highlight the nation’s growing technological expertise.
Hosted in Beijing, the 2024 Games drew more than 2,000 competing humanoid robots, which went head-to-head across a range of Olympics-style athletic competitions including soccer, boxing and track running, alongside practical real-world task challenges covering household chores, hotel hospitality services and emergency disaster response scenarios.
On Wednesday, the Tiangong Ultra humanoid robot crossed the 100-meter finish line in a historic 8.64 seconds, shaving 0.22 seconds off the record it set just 24 hours earlier. This marks the third consecutive record broken by the model over the course of the Games: four days before the final sprint, Tiangong Ultra clocked 9.39 seconds, before improving to 8.86 seconds the following day. For context, the current men’s 100-meter world record held by legendary sprinter Usain Bolt since 2009 stands at 9.58 seconds, meaning the robot’s time is nearly a full second faster than the fastest human performance in history.
Not all went according to plan during the historic run, however. Shortly after crossing the finish line, the record-breaking champion and several other competing robot sprinters crashed into a padded end-of-track barrier. Some damaged robots sparked after impact, prompting event staff to quickly deploy fire extinguishers to douse potential hazards on the overturned machines. Nearly all of the crashed robot competitors were eventually carried from the track on custom stretchers for post-race repairs.
The three consecutive records were all claimed by the same robot model: the Tiangong Ultra, developed by the Beijing Innovation Center of Humanoid Robotics, which operates under the brand name X-Humanoid. Founded in Beijing just one year ago in 2023, the young research and development center has quickly emerged as a leader in China’s expanding humanoid robotics industry.
This report has been updated to confirm the official Wednesday record time is 8.64 seconds, correcting an initial typo that listed the time as 8.84 seconds.