Tien Kung Omni humanoid robots dash on the 400-meter run small-group last on the 2nd World Humanoid Robotic Video games held in Beijing on August 23, 2026. Picture: Tao Mingyang/GT
A humanoid robotic that grabbed a 400-meter title on the 2nd World Humanoid Robotic Video games (WHRG) in Beijing whereas showing to “cowl its face with each arms” developed the weird posture by itself throughout sprinting, its builders stated, after clips of the run drew large consideration on-line.
Tien Kung Omni, constructed by the Beijing-based X-Humanoid, received the 400-meter run small-group last on Sunday in 45.66 seconds. Moderately than swinging its arms ahead and again as a human sprinter does, the robotic ran with its middle of gravity pitched ahead and its arms held excessive close to its face, swinging them extensively as its hips rotated backward and forward — a gait viewers likened to “a shy individual hiding behind their arms.”
The posture was not what engineers had in thoughts. “We initially designed Tien Kung Omni’s gait round a human-style arm swing,” Han Gang, a movement management algorithm skilled on the firm, instructed the International Instances. In a simulated studying surroundings, the staff gave the robotic steady rewards, and thru repeated iteration on the information it steadily settled right into a posture that suited it higher. “It feels that that is extra comfy,” Han stated.
The reason being a bodily constraint, Han defined. Swinging the arms quickly locations a heavy load on the shoulder joints, which may trigger them to warmth up and drive up power consumption — leaving the robotic unable to maintain the total 400m. Working with its arms close to its face permits the robotic to finish the space shortly whereas preserving its legs highly effective and its arms underneath low load.
Totally different distances pose completely different issues, Han added. In endurance occasions such because the humanoid half-marathon, engineers must pay nearer consideration to warmth dissipation within the hip joints after lengthy intervals of working. Over shorter distances such because the 100m and 400m, hip overload is far much less of a priority.
The following problem, Han stated, lies past the observe: robots might want to work together with extra advanced environments and full duties whereas being disturbed by outdoors forces. “As soon as there’s a breakthrough, we might quickly see sudden functions throughout many fields,” he stated.
Within the large-group 400-meter run last held earlier the identical day, the corporate’s Tien Kung Extremely took gold in 38.15 seconds. The time is quicker than the boys’s 400m world document of 43.03 seconds, set by South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk on the 2016 Rio Olympics and nonetheless standing after a decade.
The margin displays how shortly the sector is shifting. On the first version of the video games final 12 months, the successful 400m time was 1 minute 28.03 seconds — almost 50 seconds slower.
International Instances
