Humanoid robots will participate in a half-marathon in April in Beijing, and a humanoid robots sports meet is also scheduled for August, according to a press briefing held on Tuesday by the information office of the Beijing Municipal Government.

The half-marathon, to be held in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area in southeast Beijing on April 13, will see robotic and human athletes compete along the same route, noted Li Quan, deputy head of the area's administrative committee, adding that humanoids will run along their own separate tracks that will be secured with barriers or green belts to ensure the safety of both humans and robots.

A staff member conducts tests on a Walker X humanoid robot at a sci-tech company in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, June 26, 2024. (Xinhua/Mao Siqian)

Based on evaluations, the competition has set a robot cutoff time of approximately 3 hours and 30 minutes. During the event, teams are permitted to replace batteries or switch robots in a relay format to complete the race. The final assessment will consider both the completion time and the number of robot replacements, with a 10-minute penalty applied for each replacement.

Participating robots must feature a humanoid design and be capable of bipedal walking or running, excluding wheeled structures. Control methods may include manual remote control (including semi-autonomous) or fully autonomous operation. Teams are required to ensure their robots do not damage the track, other robots, or surrounding personnel, and must strictly follow the designated route and all specified technical rules.

The humanoid robot half-marathon competition offers awards for champion, runner-up, and third place, with prizes of 5,000, 4,000 and 3,000 yuan (about 697, 558 and 418 U.S. dollars), respectively. It also features a range of additional awards, such as the Completion Award, Best Endurance Award and Most Creative Design Award. Special accolades will also be awarded to humanoid robot development teams.

The competition is open to global robot companies, research institutes, robot clubs and universities.

China has witnessed the rapid growth of its robotics industry. Bolstered by strong capital investment, this emerging sector is advancing rapidly, with their versatile applications becoming increasingly prominent across a wide range of fields, including industrial automation, healthcare and service industries.

According to a report on the humanoid robot industry released at the 2024 World AI Conference in Shanghai, China's humanoid robot market scale was approximately 2.76 billion yuan last year.

By 2029, it is expected to expand to 75 billion yuan, which would account for 32.7 percent of the global market. 

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