A half marathon foot race in Beijing, China, saw thousands of humanoid robots of various sizes running right alongside their flesh-and-blood counterparts for an attempt to take the crown.
Footage shows the awkward bipedal robots trotting off, closely followed by their respective teams of two to three human navigators and engineers. As the Associated Press reports, the machines were separated by a divider from the hordes of human runners, making sure they didn’t get trampled — or tipped over.
But judging by their performance, it’s unlikely the robots will be rivaling their human counterparts any time particularly soon. Many of them visibly struggled to maintain a jogging pace, with their human helpers having zero issues keeping up. Others fell over or overheated.
However, the robots’ goofy appearance made for an eye-catching show, with human runners and spectators alike taking photos and videos of the stiff-limbed contraptions.
Instead of getting snacks and drinks along the way, the robots made pit stops to swap their batteries.
A biped dubbed the Sky Project Ultra robot, developed by China’s National and Local Co-built Embodied AI Robotics Innovation Center, took the top non-human spot, crossing the finish line in just over two hours and 40 minutes.
That’s quite a bit slower than the average time it takes for a fit human runner to cover the 13.1-mile distance. As Wired points out, the slowest time for a human was 3 hours and ten minutes, which meant that Sky Project Ultra was the only bot to qualify for a human participation award.
A picture shows the Sky Project Ultra bot receiving a gold medal — which itself is in the shape of a humanoid robot. At five feet, nine inches, the robot was also the tallest of the bunch.
Not every robot contender was as lucky. Plenty of metal contestants ended up falling flat on their faces. Many of the robots also overheated, forcing engineers to swap them out along the way or give up altogether.
As the AP reports, robots were given awards for best endurance, gait design, and innovative form, so there were other opportunities to score a win without mastering the art of the road race.
Besides, as experts told Wiredmost of these robots weren’t primarily designed to run as fast as possible. Many of them had vastly different jobs outside of the race.
It’s nonetheless a sign of how far the tech has come.
“Until five years ago or so, we didn’t really know how to get robots to walk reliably,” Oregon State University robotics professor Alan Fern told Wired. “And now we do, and this will be a good demonstration of that.”
More on humanoid robots: Wild Video Shows Humanoid Robot Preparing Elaborate Breakfast
