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Robot runners beat humans in Beijing half-marathon (www.dw.com)

submitted 19 hours ago by schizoidman@lemmy.zip to c/science@lemmy.world

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Shandian completed the 21-kilometer (around 13-mile) course in Beijing's Yizhuang district with a time of 50:26, while Lightning achieved a time of 48:19.

Both times were faster than the human record for the distance set by Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo, who ran a time of 57:20 at the Lisbon Half Marathon in March.

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[–] renegadespork@lemmy.jelliefrontier.net 19 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I cannot think of a non-hostile application for this.

Like who tf cares that a machine can run a marathon? The only reason marathons are a thing is because they are difficult for humans to do, and the ones who do display a feat of perseverance.

We’ve had self-propelled vehicles for hundreds of years that are way more efficient, so it’s not about transportation. The only practical application I can think of is to make robots that can chase down humans.

[–] sparkyshocks@lemmy.zip 11 points 10 hours ago

It's for showing off the engineering. Lots of robotics competitions focus on different things (throwing balls, kicking soccer balls, moving fast), but BattleBots is definitely the one I'd be most worried about advancing a dangerous line of killer tech.

A humanoid bipedal foot race shows off balance, speed, power efficiency, and things like that.