Humanoid Robot Beats Usain Bolt's 100m Record

The games are being held for the second time, at the National Speed Skating Oval, and they continue until 26 August. Organisers registered 2,056 robots from 666 teams. About 96 per cent of the teams are Chinese, but competitors come from 16 countries on six continents and will take part in 1,301 matches. There are 50 events in total. Thirty of them copy human sports, including boxing, football, weightlifting, gymnastics and eleven track-and-field events. The other 20 are practical work tasks, such as laying bricks, putting together power tools, moving packages and folding laundry. Robots that work completely on their own receive full points, while robots that need some human control receive only half. The BBC (the British Broadcasting Corporation) reported that a robot made by the Chinese smartphone company Honor also lost the race, even though the company says it ran the distance in 9.32 seconds during a test.

The work tasks are understood to show where humanoid robots will first be used in business. However, the games also revealed clear limits. Photographs show one machine catching fire after a 100-metre heat and another falling during the 400 metres.