China is aiming to show its domination of the tech race by hosting the world’s first robot marathon event on 13 April 2025. The half-marathon will test robots’ endurance, speed, and agility over a 21-kilometre course in Beijing, and robot developers are lining up to showcase their products as they are pitched against human runners for the first time ever.
The robot participants must be humanoid and wheel-free, only able to move via bipedal walking or running motion, according to local organiser Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (E-Town). The rules also state that robots must be between 0.5- and two-metres tall, “with a maximum extension distance from the hip joint to the sole of the foot of 0.4 metres.”
Meanwhile their human manufacturers can be from all over the world but must hail from research institutes, robotics clubs or startups, or universities.
Robots face “a pretty extreme test”
Alongside human racers, both remote-controlled and fully autonomous humanoids are eligible to run. Unlike their human competitors though, if the robots exhaust their battery power during the competition, their batteries can be replaced while the race is still on.
Still, the race is described as a “pretty extreme test” for robots usually conceived for domestic settings, according to Zhou Di, an expert from the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, interviewed by Yicai Global. “In industrial and household applications, the ability to run long distances isn’t usually a top priority,” he explained.
The China Association of Athletics Federations (CAAF) has appointed an international B-level marathon measurer to measure the 2025 #Beijing #ETown Half Marathon route. #VibrantETown https://t.co/73r9pT3zl7 pic.twitter.com/DDzvSF0Q5a
— Beijing E-Town (@BJ_ETown) March 18, 2025
Prizes and promotional opportunities
This means developers will have spent months refining their products algorithms and hardware to withstand the impacts and stresses caused by running for 21 kilometres. Problems to overcome include wear-and-tear on motors, joints, and other parts of the humanoid’s structure and workings.
The winner could take home a 5,000 Yuan (€632) prize. The humanoid with the best gait is reportedly up for a separate award at the marathon event, which will also feature a popularity contest with the crowd voting for favourites. The real prize though is the visibility tech innovators stand to gain from participating.
MagicBot, a humanoid robot from China's Magic Lab, has learned to walk with straight knees and run like a human. It will compete in the Beijing Humanoid Robot Half Marathon in April. pic.twitter.com/hYtTSUnFz5
— CyberRobo (@CyberRobooo) March 11, 2025
Beijing was the venue for another robotics display in October 2024, when Tiangong, the world’s first full-sized fully-electric humanoid robot, ran the last hundred metres of the Yizhuang Half Marathon.
The China Association of Athletics Federations (CAAF) has appointed an international B-level marathon measurer to measure the 2025 #Beijing #ETown Half Marathon route. #VibrantETown https://t.co/73r9pT3zl7 pic.twitter.com/DDzvSF0Q5a
— Beijing E-Town (@BJ_ETown) March 18, 2025
The city is aiming to promote the “top-tier innovation ecosystem” of its E-Town district, which the marathon organiser describes as an “important” tech hub. The town already boasts 140 robotics firms with an output value of nearly ¥10 billion [almost €61 million], accounting for half the Chinese capital’s income.
