China's TianGong Ultra Robot Breaks Human Sprint Record
2 sources · Japan
Who reported this
- Kyodo News
- The Japan Times
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- Centre-left
- Centre
- Centre-right
- Right
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A humanoid robot named TianGong Ultra has covered 100 metres in 8.64 seconds, surpassing Usain Bolt's world record by nearly a full second. The feat occurred during the World Humanoid Robot Games. Jack Guo, the 34 year old engineer leading development at the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre, known as X-Humanoid, stated that the robot was originally an experiment to push the boundaries of humanoid movement.
X-Humanoid was established in November 2023 and receives backing from state owned and private investors, including Baidu, Xiaomi, and UBTech. The center develops hardware, AI, and motion control software. While the Ultra model focused on speed, a smaller model called Omni has been used in 400m races and successfully climbed from the first to the 17th floor of the company headquarters during an internal test.
Despite the record breaking performance, Guo noted that the industry still faces the challenge of turning demonstrations into useful workers. Current trials include the Tianyi 2.0 robot moving boxes weighing 8 to 12 kg at a Foton Cummins engine factory in Beijing. Guo expects smaller humanoids to enter commercial services and light industry first, while larger models like Ultra could eventually be used for emergency rescue or outdoor inspection. Technical hurdles remain, such as braking systems for the 75kg Ultra robot, which currently reaches speeds exceeding 17 metres per second.
How each side framed it
- Centre
- The coverage focused on the technical achievement of the robot while emphasizing the practical gap between record breaking demonstrations and real world utility.
Sources
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