Humanoid Robot Outruns Usain Bolt's 100-Meter Record at Beijing Games

A humanoid robot sprinted 100 meters in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, edging past Usain Bolt's 9.58-second human world record.

A humanoid robot sprinted 100 meters in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Saturday, edging past the 9.58-second human world record Usain Bolt set in 2009. It came in a preliminary heat — and last year's best in the same event was 21.50 seconds, a one-year leap organizers are calling a breakthrough in machine speed.

A separate robot from the same Beijing maker cleared 2.88 meters in the standing high jump, topping the 2.45-meter human mark Cuba's Javier Sotomayor set in 1993.

Beijing's "Ice Ribbon" stadium, better known for speed skating, hosted more than 2,000 humanoid robots in an Olympics-style showcase spanning running, table tennis and soccer.

The feats come with caveats. Footage shows the sprinters slamming into cushions and toppling over to stop, then being carried off on stretchers. Other machines tripped, shattered, or even caught fire during the day's events.

The milestone also lands at a pointed moment: last month the U.S. Federal Communications Commission banned imports of new foreign-made humanoid robots on national-security grounds, and the Pentagon recently added Unitree, one of China's leading makers, to a list of firms it says have ties to the Chinese military.

Sources: CBS News, NBC News, The Hindu, Global Times