Tian Gong Ultra Breaks 100m World Record

Today, robots can run at breakneck speeds that even the fastest humans simply can’t match. The 9.58s human 100m record held by Usain Bolt was eclipsed multiple times during the games throughout the week. When the games concluded, a robot known as the Tian Gong Ultra clocked the fastest time, winning in a staggering 8.64 seconds. 

But while running is no problem for this speedy robot, there is one fatal flaw that none of the robot manufacturers has worked out yet. After completing the record breaking run, the Tian Gong Ultra (along with all of the other robot contestants in the video below) slammed into a padded wall, in the absence of a better engineered and safer way to slow these robots to a gradual stop. Thankfully, humans with stretchers and fire extinguishers are on hand to carry the robots off or put out the many fires that result following the spectacular collisions at the conclusion of each race

Galbot autonomous tennis robot serves up excitement

Running in a straight line is one thing, but proficiency in ball sports requires a different and more complex set of skills. Players (human or robot) must anticipate the path and trajectory of an incoming ball, which includes reading its flight path, distance, and spin. Then, a player must strike the ball precisely, with the proper timing and force to redirect the ball towards its intended target.

Chinese robotics manufacturer Galbot seems to have figured much of this out, as they demonstrated at the World Humanoid Games when their robots played games of doubles tennis against both human and robot opponents.

While the robots aren’t going to defeat Carlos Alcaraz (or Ben Shelton!Opens a new window ) at the US Open any time soon, they did recently break a world record by autonomously completing a 100+ shot rally, according to a recent Galbot press release. Opens a new window

Street Dancing Robots spin their way to gold
Perhaps the most visually appealing spectacles at the robot games were in the dance competition events, where robots showed off their breakdancing, popping and locking, and even waltzing talents. Like in real-world dance competitions, many of the robots donned dramatic costumes typical to each genre. Also, like in human dance events, some of the contestants were more skilled than others, while some moved with grace and fluidity in time with the music, others moved (dare I say it?) somewhat robotically.

Jokes aside, what truly impressed me was the Lumos Nix robot’s performance in the breakdancing category, where it secured both first and second place with some remarkable moves. The small Lumos robots executed a variety of moves, such as windmills, flares, headspins, swipes, airflares, flips, and freezes, seemingly without any effort. After trying many of these moves myself, I can say with confidence that these robots outperformed me on the dance floor by a significant margin.

Rent a house cleaning robot for $30 an hour 

Outside of the world of sport, we also saw promising offerings from San Francisco-based Tau Robotics, which offers robot services in your home or office. For a flat rate of a very low $30Opens a new window an hour, Tau will deploy a humanoid robot to you (provided that you live in the San Francisco area). In video clips provided by Tau, their robots do a pretty convincing job of vacuuming, wiping, taking out the trash, navigating stairs, and more. 

While the robot is not fully autonomous yet, it is still supervised by a remote human worker. Unlike with a trusted human cleaner, an adult needs to be present in the home for the entire duration of the cleaning. From a business security standpoint, IT professionals need to recognize that these robots are equipped with cameras and sensors that capture details of your physical surroundings, and if hacked, the electronic hardware could cause physical harm (sounds like a good plot for a story!).

Also, is it just me, or do the robots look like they’re wearing high-performance Wi-Fi routers on their heads?