[Photo via VCG]
The 2026 Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon will kick off at 7:30 on April 19, 2026, starting at Kechuang 17th Street, right next to Tongming Lake in Beijing E-Town, with the finish line set in Nanhaizi Park. Together with the Beijing E-Town Half-Marathon scheduled for the same day, the Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon will adopt a "human-robot co-run" format where human participants and humanoid robots will start simultaneously and share the same course, separated by barriers or landscaped green belts. The humanoid robot race features autonomous navigation and remote-control categories, with robots of both categories to compete on the same course and be evaluated through mixed timing methods.
To encourage more robots to compete autonomously, the event will apply coefficient adjustments to the results of teams that complete the race with non-autonomous assistance, while requiring that remote-control operators must remain in their vehicles unless absolutely necessary. The half-marathon also introduces special awards such as "Best Endurance Award", "Most Graceful Gait Award", "Best Design Award" and "Best Perception Award" to encourage technological innovation.
The half-marathon next year will also include pre-race training and testing, matchmaking sessions for investment and financing, and trips to tech parks, along with other supporting sub-events. These are aimed at strengthening the ecosystem for relevant industries, boosting innovation, and facilitating application through this competition.
In addition, there will be a new event running in parallel, which is titled the "Robot Baturu Challenge" and focuses on emergency rescues. The term "Baturu" refers to an official title awarded to commanders and soldiers who fought bravely on the battlefield during the Qing Dynasty. By simulating various rescue scenarios through obstacle courses, the challenge will build a professional outdoor training platform to test robots' autonomous decision-making, precise control, and sustained operational capabilities in complex real-world settings.
A comprehensive range of services will also be provided, with Beijing E-Town launching and operating a robot secondary development and re-engineering community covering over 10,000 square meters, which offers full-chain support including shared robot bodies, free workspaces, affordable computing power, and development tools. Each participating team will be assigned a dedicated one-on-one "butler", who will provide services such as mapping of the course and communication support. The half-marathon will also introduce "Robot Service Ambassadors", who will offer diverse services like robot cheerleading squads and route guidance along the course, to promote the evolution of robots from "competition tools" to "service partners". The winning team will then be rewarded with industrial order(s) exceeding 1 million yuan — an arrangement for seamlessly transforming the team into a sound participant of the robotics industry.
(Source: Beijing Daily)
