Robots strut their stuff, race up sacred China mountain

Dozens of robots took connected much than 3,000 steps up 1 of China's astir celebrated peaks Monday, galore carrying eggs and watermelons successful a contention organizers billed arsenic a trial of real-world instrumentality endurance, authorities media showed.

For hundreds of years, Mount Tai -- the tallest highest successful China's eastbound Shandong state -- was an important pilgrimage for Chinese emperors, and it features prominently successful Chinese mythology.

But the rugged terrain would beryllium a stern trial for immoderate competitors. One humanoid robot wearing a bandana collapsed successful a heap connected the cobbled way earlier engineers rushed successful to repair it, portion different tumbled down a formation of stairs and came to remainder beside a rubbish bin.

The UNESCO World Heritage tract hosted technologies of the aboriginal arsenic portion of a caller World Mountain Robot Challenge, footage from authorities broadcaster CCTV showed.

 Over a 2.4-mile people with much than 1,970 feet of ascent, robots and their engineers from astir 90 teams were tasked with either completing the way arsenic accelerated arsenic imaginable oregon transporting fragile goods specified arsenic caller eggs and watermelons to the summit.

A canine robot made by Beijing Lingyi Technology -- a subsidiary of manufacture elephantine Unitree -- completed the people successful 43 minutes, 41 seconds, to triumph the four-legged velocity category.

Most tourists instrumentality astatine slightest 2 hours to implicit the route, according to CCTV.

The fastest humanoid robot -- belonging to Beijing-based squad Zhishen Lingyue -- completed a shorter contention people successful 27 minutes and 26 seconds.

Organizers called Mount Tai's rocky terrain a "natural utmost investigating ground" that could assistance bid robots for real-world use, section media reported.

The race, organized by the state-run China Media Group, featured currency prizes for winners successful respective categories, including the fastest robots and the champion load-carrying four-legged machine.

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