Humanoid robot invents 'face-covering' sprint to win 400m race
saibharadwaj · x · 2026-08-25
The 'Tien Kung Omni' humanoid robot by X-Humanoid won the 400m race at the World Humanoid Robot Games with a viral 'face-covering' running style, which the robot developed itself.
- Physics constraint: Engineers initially designed a human-like arm swing, but rapid swinging overloaded the shoulder joints, causing overheating and preventing the robot from finishing the race.
- Self-learned gait: In a simulated learning environment with continuous rewards, the robot iterated on data and settled into a posture with hands near its face and wide hip rotation to reduce shoulder load.
- Outcome: This self-invented style allowed it to finish the 400m in 45.66 seconds, optimizing for physical constraints.
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