When several humanoid robots clumsily finish a half marathon, the comments section is filled with both cheers for the “industrial miracle” and ridicule for “subsidy fraud.”
Some angrily denounce it as a “subsidy fraud scheme,” calculating that “the cost of 3 operators and 5 batteries is enough to buy 10 industrial robotic arms”;
Others excitedly flood the comments with “Chinese manufacturing crushes Boston Dynamics,” accompanied by blurry screenshots of the robots falling.
Moreover, marketing accounts seize the opportunity to launch “robot concept stock surge codes,” immediately inundated with comments like “all in” and “cutting leeks”…
However, setting aside emotional opposition, we should perhaps examine this “clumsy” competition from a longer-term perspective: many breakthroughs in the history of technology initially carried an “absurd” undertone — the first airplane flew for only 12 seconds but opened the door to the aviation era. The significance of robots running marathons lies not in their current “practicality” but in the “seeding” of the future.
1. Pushing Technological Breakthroughs through Extreme Challenges: The Black Technologies “Run” Out
1. Motor Technology: From “Stumbling Steps” to “Muscle Evolution”
The inefficiency of humanoid robots walking on two legs is undeniable, but this “anti-ergonomic” design has become a “pressure testing ground” for motor performance. To make the robots run, engineers must break through the existing power density limits of servo motors:
Case: A participating robot compressed the motor reducer’s backlash from 0.02mm to 0.005mm to increase the step frequency, and this technological breakthrough was directly applied to the precision transmission systems of high-end CNC machine tools;
Industry Chain Impact: To meet the lightweight requirements of robot joints, rare earth permanent magnet material manufacturers are accelerating the development of nano-coating technology for neodymium-iron-boron magnets, with related patent applications increasing by 300% year-on-year — these technologies will benefit fields such as new energy vehicles and medical robots in the future.
2. Autonomous Navigation: Learning to “See the Road” While “Stumbling”
Remote-controlled robots running marathons may seem like an “intelligence lowland,” but they actually hide key explorations in multi-modal sensor fusion:
Visual Algorithms: To enable robots to identify track boundaries in complex terrains, the team developed a “dynamic obstacle prediction model,” whose algorithm framework has been transferred to the rain condition recognition system for autonomous driving;
Tactile Feedback: A mechanism that allows a robot to automatically adjust its posture after falling has inspired the “fall protection algorithm” for exoskeleton robots, which is currently in clinical testing in the rehabilitation medical field.
3. Energy Systems: Finding Breakthrough Paths Amid “Range Anxiety”
The awkwardness of frequently changing batteries forces companies to confront energy bottlenecks:
Solid-State Battery Pilot: A participating company collaborated with a university to use the marathon site as a testing ground for solid-state battery prototypes. Although the range only improved by 20%, it achieved stable discharge in a -20℃ low-temperature environment for the first time;
Energy Recovery Innovations: The kinetic energy recovery technology generated when the robot swings its arms has been improved and applied to smart wearable devices, allowing a certain wristband to extend its battery life from 7 days to 14 days.
2. “Trial and Error” for Future Scenarios: Those Apparently Useless “Humanoid Explorations”
1. “Advance Team” for Extreme Environments
Human form is not the optimal mode of movement, but in special scenarios that require simulating human behavior, humanoid robots are irreplaceable:
Nuclear Radiation Scenarios: During the repair of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, wheeled robots were attempted, but they were helpless against stairs and ruins; if humanoid robots can overcome complex terrain movements in the future, they could become “first responders” in high-risk environments;
Space Exploration: NASA’s “Valkyrie” robot has already conducted walking tests in simulated Martian environments, as rovers cannot handle all terrains, humanoid robots may become “mechanical substitutes” for astronauts.
2. “Rehearsal” for Human-Robot Collaboration
Scenarios such as home services and medical care require robots to share space with humans, and humanoid forms are the most easily accepted interaction interface:
Emotional Interaction Experiments: The design of a certain participating robot’s action of “waving for help” when it falls has sparked a research boom in human-robot emotional interaction, with related results being applied to the expression systems of companion robots;
Physical Safety Standards: The “collision risks” exposed during the robot marathon have promoted the formulation of the “Humanoid Robot Safety Contact Threshold” group standard, laying the foundation for future safety regulations for household robots.
3. The “Invisible Value” More Important than Technology
1. Igniting the Public’s “Technological Romanticism”
Do you remember the scene in 1969 when 500 million people watched the Apollo 11 moon landing on television? Technology needs a romantic narrative of “useless utility” to maintain the public’s imagination for the future:
Educational Effect: A certain elementary school organized students to watch the robot marathon, resulting in a 200% increase in science class enrollment, and children began building “running robots” with LEGO;
Cultural Breakthrough: Videos of robots stumbling have garnered 230 million views on Douyin, bringing the professional term “embodied intelligence” into the public eye and laying the cognitive groundwork for future technology popularization.
2. Restructuring the “Patience Curve” of Technology Investment
In the wave of AI large models’ “Instant Gratification,” humanoid robots represent a commitment to “Slow Tech”:
Capital Shift: A certain VC firm, after watching the marathon, allocated 30% of its originally intended 200 million yuan investment in large models to establish an “embodied intelligence special fund,” clearly requiring “tolerance for a 5-10 year technology latency”;
Policy Tilt: A certain local government has included “humanoid robot basic research” in the “14th Five-Year” technology special plan, establishing a cross-enterprise joint laboratory for motor materials — this long-term layout is key to overcoming “bottleneck” issues.
4. Rational Boundaries Behind the Celebration
We must be clear: the current “running” of humanoid robots is essentially a “technology demo packaged with engineering gimmicks,” and there is at least a ten-year gap to practical application. If we indulge in “walking shows” and “somersault shows,” it may lead to resource misallocation:
Beware of Data Fraud: A certain company secretly laid electromagnetic navigation coils under the track to make the robot run more steadily; this kind of “cheating innovation” will only deplete industry trust;
Return to Scenario Orientation: Rather than competing in the “extreme sports of human form,” it is better to focus on the composite form of “robotic arms + wheeled chassis” to first address clear needs such as factory loading and unloading and warehouse sorting.
Conclusion: Allow Technology to “Trial and Error,” but Reject “Performance-Oriented Innovation”
In 1903, when the Wright brothers tested their airplane, onlookers mocked them as “crazy people wanting to fly”; in 2025, when robots run marathons, we are also witnessing “crazy persistence.” History will ultimately prove that what truly drives technological progress is not the “correct choice” but the “brave attempt.”
We can laugh at the current clumsiness of robots, but we must respect those engineers who spend three months fine-tuning for a 0.1-degree joint angle, and those researchers who invest despite knowing there will be no short-term results — because today’s “useless work” may be the fuse for tomorrow’s technological revolution.