A humanoid robot took the fastest half-marathon record away from human athletes.
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See full article...
Robot runner handily beats humans in half-marathon, setting new record
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
This should not be a particularly warm take, but....
No. No it did not. A humanoid robot is doing something categorically different than a human athlete. The two do not compete. The two cannot compete. The only thing that robot is doing that's even faintly related to running a marathon is bipedal locomotion, and only in that way is it any different than a remote control car driving 13.1 miles - a task that is trivial for almost any self-propelled machine with a battery or energy source capable of powering it for whatever amount of time it takes to traverse that distance. Let's not trivialize human accomplishments.
No. No it did not. A humanoid robot is doing something categorically different than a human athlete. The two do not compete. The two cannot compete. The only thing that robot is doing that's even faintly related to running a marathon is bipedal locomotion, and only in that way is it any different than a remote control car driving 13.1 miles - a task that is trivial for almost any self-propelled machine with a battery or energy source capable of powering it for whatever amount of time it takes to traverse that distance. Let's not trivialize human accomplishments.
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Exactly. It's about as correct as claiming a forklift stole a human athlete's Olympic medal in weightlifting.
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I'm curious as to what the qualifying requirements for this race are. Obviously, it seems that a team can't just enter in a high-speed wheeled vehicle, but I wonder how closely the robot is required to mimic human locomotion, if certain types of feet are required (IIRC, the Olympics bans certain types of prosthetic feet because they perform significantly better than flesh and blood) etc.
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thats.. the entire point though?
That is literally the point though?? Like, yes, that is indeed the difference between a marathon and a nascar race.
A humanoid robot capable of running without a harness did not even exist 10 years ago.
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I read somewhere that some were remote controlled and some were “autonomous”. Trying to find the source again for you…
*edited to include source of above statement: https://apnews.com/article/humanoid-robots-half-marathon-beijing-302d0c4781bab20100d6a0bb4e77b629
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What they are doing here is frightening. You just know that the military are salivating over progress like this.
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anonymouschicken
Ars Scholae Palatinae
You took the words out of my mouth. Ultimately what we have is a machine that can cover some physical distance faster than humans can. Cars, trains, and planes have been doing that for a long time now. The only interesting thing about this machine is the fact that the specific mechanism it used to cover the distance does resemble humanoid running. But I can't imagine that it's very good at "running" in any context other than a carefully curated environment. Did it encounter any rough terrain, or was the road surface flat and smooth the whole way? Were there any significant hills? Did it have to make any "decisions" along the way, or was the route pre-programmed into the robot? Also, the article noted it ran along a parallel track, presumably to keep it separate from the human runners for safety concerns. Would it be able to navigate a crowded field of runners, or would it crash into people?
To me this is just like all the other humanoid robot applications I've seen - something that's expensive, brittle, and situational, which is extremely adapted to a specific task that humans are already well-suited to perform. While still an impressive feat of engineering, I struggle to imagine a world where these robots are actually useful for very much.
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This is what baffles me about Tesla's valuation/stock price:
They do not have the most advanced humanoid robot.
They do not have the most advanced driverless taxi service.
Yet they are valued as if they are the only company in this space. They don't even have the first mover advantage. The only "advantage" they have is a toxic chief salesman.
They do not have the most advanced humanoid robot.
They do not have the most advanced driverless taxi service.
Yet they are valued as if they are the only company in this space. They don't even have the first mover advantage. The only "advantage" they have is a toxic chief salesman.
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Isn't Honor a de facto extension of Huawei? My recollection is that the former was separated from the latter in order to avoid US sanctions, but that there's still a lot of technical cross-pollination between the two.
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IMHO the speed is less interesting than the endurance. Bipedal robots are usually pretty short range due to battery limitations, but these were efficient enough to make it 13.1 miles on their own. Granted, this was presumably over hard flat land, might be more interesting to re-run this race over hilly, slippery, and rocky terrain. Something that wheeled or even tracked vehicle would not be able to navigate.
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Yesterday I drove 21 kilometers in about 9 minutes 40 seconds, thus proving that cars are vastly superior to humanoid robots.
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I'm all for Johnny 5 and the like, but they need a big ass panic button. Like one that has a razor blade that chops the power system.
Cause I will tell you this, being chased by one of these things is the only reason why I would be running for 50 minutes.
Cause I will tell you this, being chased by one of these things is the only reason why I would be running for 50 minutes.
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Investors hang out on X where Tesla is frequently touted as being the leader, and in some cases only viable competitor, in all of those areas.
Seriously, hang out on the "for you" feed and you end up in a completely different universe.
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Judging by the posts in here, robots have a long way to go before they'll beat us at goal post moving.
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I'd like to see this turn into a decathlon of different tests for the robot. Run, jump, perform a task that requires hand dexterity, run, jump, run through water, perform a task that requires visual sorting, run run, explode.
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Elon Musk:
Our goal is a robot run of full autonomy all the way from LA to New York without the need for a single rest. We’ll probably be able to do a coast-to-coast robot run in three months, six months at the outside.
Our goal is a robot run of full autonomy all the way from LA to New York without the need for a single rest. We’ll probably be able to do a coast-to-coast robot run in three months, six months at the outside.
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Who gets to decide where the goalposts are and what they mean?
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Kinda hard to imagine what a humanoid robot can do better than a drone can do in war.
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I'm not going to feature this comment, but know that I want to.
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One step closer, so to speak...
Pretty impressive stuff, all told. It wasn't that long ago that bipedal robots amazed us by not falling down at the slightest provocation. I suppose Boston Dynamics' robots have had to put up a fair bit of crap with over the years in the name of advancement.
Pretty impressive stuff, all told. It wasn't that long ago that bipedal robots amazed us by not falling down at the slightest provocation. I suppose Boston Dynamics' robots have had to put up a fair bit of crap with over the years in the name of advancement.
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Optimus is one supercharger port in the butt away from trying this stunt. Would be quite an endurance challenge for the teleoperator.
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True in part.
But...
Many similar things were said about the entrants to the DARPA self driving challenges. And now Waymo is in full operation.
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Sage wisdom from the woods:
You don't have to outrun the man eating bear. You only have to outrun one of the guys trying to run from the man eating bear.
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This comes from the fact that "economic science" is based on human feelings and as such, is not a science at all, but a wish machine.....
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Pithy, but not even wrong. Nobody in these comments was involved in setting the original "goal posts".
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Its not surprising it beat the human record, but its interesting it wasnt by a huge difference.
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And thanks to Jeremy Hsu for this -
Always appreciate when writers are responsive to editorial feedback.
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Not sure what people are getting at with "goal post moving". Everyone agrees the robot is neat and impressive. But it can't take the half marathon record from humans, it isn't a human, and it's not particularly novel or interesting to note that there are things faster than humans in the world. Do these posters consider ostriches to own the sprint record? Sorry Usain, the record was actually for bipedal locomotion.
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I'm quite sure that none of the 12000 human runners felt their achievement was in any way trivialized by the robot. Nor by Jacob Kiplimo's 57:20 time.
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It would be nice if we had actual race results and more of a discusion on the power packs used for these robots. Were they battery powered? Some sort of engine? Steam powered (clanks!) or some combination? And how much power did they have when they got done, and how beat up were they?
It's a fun article, but whets my appetite for more technical details.
It's a fun article, but whets my appetite for more technical details.
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