Human vs. Machine: Beijing's Next Half Marathon Gets a Mechanical Twist

Abigail Weathers | Mar 10, 2025 11:30 am | Add a comment | 102 reads

As the world marches swiftly (personally, I’m being dragged kicking and screaming) towards an inevitable AI and robot future, there are those among us who aren’t walking — they’re running.

On Apr 13, Beijing E-Town will host the world’s first human and humanoid robot half-marathon, the Beijing E-Town (Yizhuang) Half Marathon, but for reasons that aren’t purely spectacle.

Beijing E-Town has hosted a half marathon since at least 2023, and there have been a number of marathons and half marathons around the country that have introduced robot participation, but this is the first year that humanoid robots will compete along the entire length of the course along with human runners. During last year’s Beijing E-Town half marathon, a robot named Tiangong, the brainchild of Beijing Embodied Artificial Intelligence Robotics Innovation Center, or HUMANOID, ran the last 100 meters of the race as a closing pacer, and then cheered them on at the finish line. There have been other instances of robots participating in full races, including an example from South Korea in which a four-legged robot completed a full marathon in just under four hours and 20 minutes, but the inclusion of bipedal, humanoid robots as competitors this year is a major step forward for robotics development and societal integration.

The name “Beijing E-Town” refers to both the sprawling Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, located in Daxing District and also know as the BDA, and the economic development agency of the Beijing municipal government established in 1994 to promote high-tech manufacturing in the city. The BDA contains several subdivisions, each focusing on a particular area of technological or economic development. Prominent among these is the ZGC E-Town International Robotics Industrial Park, a 250,000sqm-area situated within the BDA dedicated to technological innovation in robotics and home to more than 100 robotics companies. The park opened the Beijing World of Robots in August of last year. Word also has it that Beijing is planning to host a World Humanoid Robot Games in the lead-up to its hosting of the 2025 World Robot Conference later this year in August.

China’s dominance in industrial manufacturing extends to AI and humanoid robotics development. The country’s industry has seen massive growth in recent years and months, with various types of AI and robots already being tested and deployed in factories, businesses, sporting events, schools, hospitals and homes. While the background and motivation for these efforts is perhaps too extensive and complicated to get into in this post, manual labor, service industry applications, economic and technological production and advancement, and countering the effects of China’s aging population are clearly top of mind.

The Chinese mainland’s robot density, a metric that reflects the number of operational industrial robots per 10,000 employees in a given area, is 470, placing it third only behind South Korea and Singapore, two countries that are working on a much smaller scale. China has been the largest adopter of industrial robots in the world, with over 50 percent of the world’s robot installations in 2023. In 2024, the Chinese robotics market stood at around USD 7 billion, and various projections estimate it to grow to anywhere from one hundred to several hundred billion USD by the 2030s.

Race Details

Race organizers and scientists eager to put their robots to the test may be raring to go, but the runners must abide by all the race rules, and participating robots, in particular, are subject to a number of requirements. Humans and humanoids will race on separate tracks. Robots must not be a danger to the race track, humans, or other robots. Robots must be humanoid in appearance and be capable of either walking or running on two “legs”; robots that move via some sort of wheeled system are not allowed. Robots must be between 0.5m and 1.5m (1.6ft and 6.5ft.) and may be either autonomous, semi-autonomous, or manually remote-controlled. There is a time limit of 3.5 hours for robot runners. Battery changes are allowed, but a 10-minute penalty will be applied for each battery change. Scores for the race will be determined both by finish position and net race time, factoring in any time penalties—the top three finishers, whether human or robot, will receive prizes. First prize is RMB 5,000, second prize is RMB 4,000, and third prize is RMB 3,000, and there will be smaller awards for various other categories.

Registration

If you’re itching to take your place among the estimated 10,000+ humans expected to participate in this year’s event, there’s still time to sign up! Registration for the event ends at 5pm tomorrow, Mar 11. After registration closes, participants will be chosen by a lottery system, with names to be announced in late March. If you are selected as a runner, the entry fee is RMB 120. Runners must be 16 years old in the race year (2025), meaning they must have been born on or before Dec 31, 2009.

And if you just remembered the 6-foot-tall, bipedal humanoid robot named Jeff that you keep in your closet, you can also enter it (him?) in the competition by the deadline.

Hopeful participants can sign up for the half marathon on the Mala Mala 马拉马拉 app, the Shuzi Xindong app 数字心动 app, or the Qingying Ka 轻盈咔 mini program by searching "北京亦庄半程马拉松". Robot owners can register their robots on the Mala Mala app.