[Photo via VCG]

The 2026 Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon will kick off at 7:30 on April 19, 2026, starting at Kechuang 17th Street by Tongming Lake in Beijing E-Town, with the finish line set at 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-running" model. Human participants and humanoid robots will start simultaneously and share the same course, separated by barriers or landscaped green belts. Humanoid robots will compete in two categories—autonomous navigation and remote control—using a hybrid timing system.

To encourage more robots to finish the competition autonomously, the event will apply coefficient adjustments to the results of teams using 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. 

Supporting sub-events will be organized, including pre-race training and testing, matchmaking sessions for investment and financing, and tech park visits. These are aimed at strengthening the ecosystem for relevant industries, boosting innovation, and facilitating real-world application through this competition.

There will be a new challenge event running in parallel, which focuses on emergency rescues. By simulating various rescue scenarios through obstacle courses, a professional outdoor training platform will be built to test robots' autonomous decision-making, control proficiency, 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 course mapping 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 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)