'Lightning' Beats Usain Bolt's 100 Metres World Record

Reuters

Photo of Lightening.

A ⁠robot named Lightning ⁠has run the 100m in 9.32 seconds at this year's World Humanoid Robot Games, ⁠beating the human world ⁠record, China’s state broadcaster ‌has reported.

The humanoid, developed by Chinese smartphone manufacturer Honor, ‌reached a peak speed of 14.5 metres per second during ‌a test event for the second World Humanoid Robot Games, which ⁠begin on Saturday. The performance surpassed the 9.58sec men’s 100m world record set by Usain Bolt 17 years ago at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

Lightning also won the 21-kilometre Beijing half marathon in April in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, faster than the elite men's human world-record pace.

The robot stood 169 centimetres tall and had 95-centimetre legs at those games.

Researchers lengthened its legs by 10 centimetres ahead of the World Humanoid Robot Games which opened in Beijing on Saturday, China Central Television reported.

China has been promoting humanoid robots as an emerging industry, with policymakers and companies ‌betting that advances in AI and hardware will accelerate their deployment in manufacturing, logistics and consumer applications.

Running from August 22 to 26, this year's World Humanoid Robot Games mark the second edition of the latest and biggest incarnation of China's robot games, which have been taking place for the past decade.

According to Reuters, the 2026 games add a challenge for robotic hands, with robots judged on their speed and accuracy in precision tasks: tightening screws, opening bottles and picking up beads with tweezers.



PUKMEDIA