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Third place!The world's first personal robot half marathon!"Walker 2" made a stunning debut!

2025.04.21

As one of the representative fields for developing new quality productivity, humanoid robots are expected to become a disruptive product after computers, smartphones, and new energy vehicles, and will profoundly transform human production and lifestyles and reshape the global industrial development pattern.In order to better test the reliability, safety and durability of humanoid robots in real scenarios, and accelerate the promotion of humanoid robots to participate in social and production scenarios such as disaster rescue, long-distance inspection, special hazard operations, and intelligent manufacturing, the world's first personal robot half marathon started in Beijing on April 19. Professor Li Qingdu of Shanghai University of Technology led the "Walker 2" independently developed by Shanghai Zhuoyide Robot Co., Ltd. to perform outstandingly in the competition and achieved third place results.

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The world's first personal robot half marathon

Passed the harsh half-marathon event with outstanding results

In this event that defines the future, every small step taken by robots may be a big step for technology and industry to move towards the future.It is understood that a total of 20 teams organized by national key R&D institutions such as the National Innovation Center (i.e., the National and Local Government Co-built Embodied Intelligent Robot Innovation Center), Songyan Power, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and other national key R&D institutions, core listed companies, and well-known universities participated in this competition of the "extreme test" of humanoid robot technology.

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The world's first "human-machine running" model

Finally, in an innovative event where the entire journey is 21.0975 kilometers, man-machine starts at the same time and shares the track (with physical isolation in the middle),The humanoid robot developed by Professor Li Qingdu’s team at Shanghai University of Technology shines.The Walker 2 bipedal robot independently developed and produced by Shanghai Zhuoyide Company empowers the "Walker 2" and " EAI” Two teams participated in the competition, among which the "Walker 2" team won the third place;“ EAI” The team successfully finished the race with fifth place, with the first in the game's endurance。This achievement directly verified the reliability of the tendon bionic drive technology route, and defeated the bottlenecks of traditional robots being restricted by battery energy density and motor power density.

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The organizer presents awards to the "Walker 2" team

(Professor Li Qingdu is the first on the left)

Use innovative technologies to ensure "walk for a long time" and "run fast"

Li Qingdu, executive director of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute of Shanghai University of Technology and founder of Shanghai Zhuoyide Robot, said in an interview that battery energy density and motor power density are bottlenecks that affect the robot's battery life. After breaking through this problem, our robot can walk for 6 hours and run for 4 hours without changing the battery, and its fastest movement speed can reach 9 kilometers per hour.

It is understood that as a full-size bipedal humanoid robot, "Walker 2" is the second generation product developed by the team.The tendon bionic drive technology it uses has outstanding advantages, which can significantly increase the load and reduce its own weight compared to other technical paths.In robot joint driving design, unlike traditional robots that rely on a single motor to drive joints, "Walker 2" adopts rope driving method to dynamically distribute multiple motor energy to multiple joints, achieving energy saving while reducing peak power.In order to meet the needs of long-term operation, the R&D team also used cross-modal transfer learning technology to simulate human motion patterns and learning methods, breaking through the limitations of the stiff gait of traditional bipedal robots, achieving natural and smooth human-like gaits, and having significant advantages in human-computer interaction scenarios.

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“Walker 2" in the competition

Win the promising future with universal performance

As can be seen during the competition, unlike other humanoid robot contestants, the "Walker 2" is moderately tall, at 1.70 meters, while the entire machine weighs only 28 kilograms, and the lightweight design characteristics are obvious.From the perspective of kinematic principles, lightweighting greatly improves the robot's movement flexibility, allowing it to quickly complete complex movements such as turning and jumping, and easily adapt to diverse task scenarios;From the perspective of energy management, while ensuring that the structural strength is sufficient to support complex tasks, it effectively reduces energy consumption, provides guarantees for long-term stable operation, and expands application boundaries.

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The "Walker 2" in the competition is light in gait, like walking in the garden

In the field of rehabilitation and medical care, it can assist in walking training and improve rehabilitation results;In the logistics industry, it can be used as a long-distance automatic delivery robot to adapt to complex urban environments;In rescue scenarios, its lightweight and energy-efficient properties can help search and rescue operations after earthquakes and other disasters;In the fields of scientific research and education, public services, industrial applications, and healthy elderly care, it can also inject strong impetus into intelligent development.

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Stills from the robot drama "City of Giant Things".Participating in stage performances is just one of the applications of humanoid robots in the field of culture and art

Humanoid robots are one of the typical application forms of embodied intelligence.At this year's National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the government work report clearly stated that it will establish a mechanism for future industrial investment growth and cultivate future industries including embodied intelligence.At present, the team has cooperated with some robot companies and automation companies, and will accelerate technology transformation in the future, allowing "Walker 2" to move from the laboratory to the market, and achieve greater industrial benefits and social value with its strong versatility and adaptability.

Reprinted丨Shanghai University of Technology

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