Humanoid robots stride into the future with world's first half-marathon

Step by mechanical step, dozens of humanoid robots took to the streets of Beijing early Saturday, joining thousands of their flesh-and-blood counterparts in a world-first half marathon showcasing China's drive to lead the global race in cutting-edge technology.

The 21-kilometre event held in the Chinese capital's E-Town - a state-backed hub for high-tech manufacturing - is billed as a groundbreaking effort to test the limits of bipedal robots in real-world conditions.

At the crack of the starter's gun, and as a Chinese pop song "I Believe" blared out from loudspeakers on repeat, the robots queued up one by one and took their first tentative steps.

Curious human runners lined up on their side of the road and waited patiently with mobile phones at the ready to shoot each machine as they prepared to depart.

One smaller-sized android, which fell over and lay on the ground for several minutes, got up by itself to loud cheers.

Another, powered by propellers and designed to look like a Transformer, veered across the starting line before crashing into a barrier and knocking over an engineer.

Around 20 teams from across China are taking part in the competition - with robots ranging from 75 to 180 centimetres (2.46 to 5.9 feet) tall and weighing up to 88 kilograms (194 pounds).

Some are running autonomously, while others are guided remotely by engineers, with machines and humans running on separate tracks.

Engineers told AFP the goal was to test the performance and reliability of the androids - emphasising that finishing the race, not winning it, was the main objective.