Chinese humanoid robot approaches human speed record

The H1 humanoid robot has parameters similar to a normal person such as weighing 62 kg, thigh and calf length of about 80 cm. A video released by Unitree Robotics this month shows the H1 tested on an athletics track. As it passed through the speedometer, the screen showed a rate of 10.1 meters per second, with a note that the device could be inaccurate.

Notably, this speed is very close to the world record for men’s 100-meter running set by legendary Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt in 2009. Bolt completed the distance in 9.58 seconds, or an average of about 10.44 meters per second.

On the Chinese social network Sina Weibo, account Candiceqin amazed at H1’s sprinting speed, commenting that the robot looked like it was about to fly. Meanwhile, ship clause Jerry-Qixing believes that “the amateur has now become a professional”.

On X, the video attracted more than 9.4 million views after 4 days, most of the comments were impressed. User chanpark-xyz writes: “The craziest thing is that we’ve gone beyond ‘can it walk’ and moved on to ‘can it beat an Olympic athlete’.”

Before that, according to Securities TimesWang Xingxing, CEO of Unitree Robotics, said at the Yabuli Entrepreneur Forum 2026 (March 17-19) that the humanoid robot could break the 10-second 100-meter running record by the middle of this year, surpassing Bolt. The company also revealed plans to launch the R1 humanoid robot globally for $4,000 on e-commerce site AliExpress.

Running is one of the popular testing methods for Chinese humanoid robot manufacturers. In the World Humanoid Robot Games 2025, an event likened to the Olympics of humanoid robots that took place in Beijing last August, the Tien Kung Ultra robot of the China National and Local Embodied AI Robotics Innovation Center won the 100-meter running event with a time of 21.50 seconds, beating the H1 robot used by two other teams.

In addition, Tien Kung Ultra also won with a record of about 2 hours and 40 minutes in the world’s first humanoid robot half-marathon that took place in China last year. In February this year, Chinese robotics company MirrorMe released a video showing that Bolt, a humanoid robot 175 cm tall and weighing 75 kg, can also reach speeds of 10 meters per second.

The second humanoid robot half-marathon will take place in Beijing on April 19. Last weekend, more than 70 teams tested robots on the track in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Zone. Analysts believe that there will be more humanoid robots competing in this year’s event, promising a more exciting race.