Chinese humanoid robot reportedly beats Usain Bolt’s 100m record

A Chinese humanoid robot has reportedly run the 100 metres in 9.32 seconds, beating Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt’s 9.58-second world record.

Al Jazeera English, citing China’s state broadcaster CCTV, reports that the robot, named Lightning, achieved the feat during a preparatory test for the second World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing.

“Lightning reached a peak speed of 14.5 metres per second,” Al Jazeera English reported, citing CCTV.

The performance was faster than Bolt’s record, which he set at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

The report said China has been promoting humanoid robots as a strategic emerging industry, with companies and policymakers seeking to expand their use in areas including manufacturing, logistics and consumer applications.

Lightning has also demonstrated endurance. The robot won a 21-kilometre Beijing half-marathon in April in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, a time faster than the pace of the men’s human world record.

The robot reportedly stood 1.69 metres tall and initially had legs measuring 95 centimetres.

Researchers later lengthened its legs by 10 centimetres to 1.05 metres ahead of the humanoid robot games.

However, the 9.32-second performance is not an official human athletics record, as the robot competed under entirely different conditions from athletes governed by World Athletics rules.

The development highlights the rapid advances being made in humanoid robotics in China.