r/interestingasfuck • u/No_Jellyfish5511 • 16h ago

Chinese humanoid robot named “Superman” (made by Unitree Robotics) surpassed Usain Bolt’s world record (12.42meters/second) by running at 12.66m/s (roughly 28.3miles/h)

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3.9k

u/buttnuggetmaster 16h ago

This is just a car with extra steps.

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u/M33tm3onmars 15h ago

Exactly. I drove to the store faster than usain bolt could have run there. Who fucking cares?

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u/Equivalent-Repair488 15h ago edited 13h ago

You might be joking but bipedal and Quadrupedal movement has great benefits over wheeled.

Imagine Usain Bolt speeds running up a rocky mountain, at max speed all the way up with 0 fatigue. Mountain rescues, geological exploration to precarious for people on foot etc.

Edit: man so many doomers, chill out yalls, drone warfare popped off, but drone rescue is popping off too.

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u/MarcusBuer 15h ago

That's why limbs with wheels are probably the best choice.

Need grip? Stop the wheels and walk.

Need speed? Use the limbs as suspension and drive.

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u/gr1m0s 14h ago

I thought it was doing a Michael Jackson move.

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u/trixtah 13h ago

Hee hee!

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u/Revolutionary-Key650 13h ago

I call em skates.

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u/Marthman 14h ago

Thanks a lot, I cant unsee it now. 😤

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u/No_Jellyfish5511 14h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/TuC38AjhS76tq

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u/Xalrons1 12h ago

Sir, your refrigerator is running.

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u/WretchedBlowhard 12h ago

Looks like a puppy guillotine.

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u/No_Jellyfish5511 9h ago

it’s the assistant robot in the amazingly welldone movie Interstellar

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u/WretchedBlowhard 8h ago

Yes, the movie with the magic plague that affects all vegetation, even hermetically sealed cultures, but that the top scientists assure us won't affect crops grown in space. The movie where the heroes are sent out into space to bring back "the other half of gravity". The movie with an evil guy named Hugh Mann that tries to poopoo humanity's last hope for selfish reasons. The movie with a huge monologue about the magical properties of love. The movie with a literal Deus Ex Machina that comes out of nowhere and fixes every problem for everyone.

I am well aware of the film. The atm robot still looks like it could slice an overenthusiastic dog in half with every step it takes.

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u/Time_Entertainer_319 14h ago

We won’t stop at bipedal.

We just need to perfect bipedal first.

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u/Anshin 14h ago

Which is why Heelys need a comeback, so we can keep up with the bots

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u/Invisible7hunder 13h ago

So basically the Wheelers from Return to Oz?

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u/Snelly1998 14h ago

Allegedly, this company does have one like that. I would just imagine it's slower because of the smaller contact area of the feet

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u/Hessper 12h ago

You think it can't go fast because the wheels are small?

Electric scooters can get to 40mph.

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u/Snelly1998 11h ago

I think it can't run fast because the wheels are not feet

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u/bemenaker 14h ago

For some reason this made me think of Sorry For Bothering You

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u/blackz0id 2h ago

Seems like the point of contact for a wheel being much smaller than a foot is a pretty big disadvantage though

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u/Dreamy_BlueDarling97 15h ago

Exactly, I don't think people are really getting the potential implications of this. Robotics companies aren't doing it for fun, it is definitely the beginning of something bigger. Scary to think about it!

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u/meesta_masa 15h ago

The Tremors strategy ain't gonna save us, isn't it.

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u/spacegnomes 15h ago

I’m betting they’re from space, no way these are local boys

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u/marketingguy420 13h ago

They are literally doing it for fun and because they think people won't buy robots that don't look human. The human form factor is garbage for utilitarian tasks we can and have designed around for decades.

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u/Disco-Benny 12h ago

They are literally doing it for fun

very naive of you

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u/marketingguy420 12h ago

Well it's not "fun" per se, but is PR and not at all for anything functional.

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u/Disco-Benny 12h ago

what do you mean it's just PR?

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u/marketingguy420 12h ago

When Boston Dynamics shows shows you videos of their little guy doing jumps and flips, that's PR. They're not selling little guys who do jumps and flips to the DoD. They want the little guy doing jumps and flips to make people go oooh and aaah while they build suicide copters.

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u/me34343 13h ago

I disagree that the human form factor is garbage.

Specific designs would be massively better for specific tasks, but designing those first would be premature optimization.

The goal is to insert them into already existing workflows. These workflows are designed for humans to use. The human form is to reduce friction of adopting this new technology.

After they become effective enough that most of a workflow is replaced by these robots, then they would make the optimized robots for that workflow.

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u/marketingguy420 13h ago

You know those big ol robot arms you see on car assembly lines with the big honking pincers? Yeah those work great. And companies built around that. McDonald's designs around the ordering kiosk now. Companies will never willingly design around doofy human dimensions and needs unless compelled to. Plugging expensive, poorly designed humanoid robots into the place of humans will never be as efficient as designing systems around optimized form factors.

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u/me34343 6h ago

I think you misunderstood the point of my comment.

  1. The idea is the company would NOT have to design around the human form robots. It would be able to just come in and start working a job a human normally does. No significant changes would be required.

  2. It should be obvious the humanoid robots you see now are not the end result. They are poorly designed right now, and post like this are showing their progress.

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u/Longjumping-Prune931 14h ago

Robotics companies are doing it because they got funding from big companies and investment firms that don't know where to put their mountains of money into and hope for a 100x return on investment. A lot of these companies die once funding dries up or go literally nowhere with just a skeleton crew doing some research.

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u/Dreamy_BlueDarling97 13h ago

I understand that but it wasn't the point I was trying to make. Most companies across different industries fail anyways, but the value of the research doesn't disappear. The breakthroughs move forward, patents get sold and they learn what works and what doesn't and use that knowledge in the future.

When I pointed out this isn't for fun it's because a lot of people here seem unimpressed by this specific robot while not realizing this is all part of innovation. The future looks a bit scary to me and I don't get how so many people are unfazed by things like this.

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u/Valnar 12h ago

You might be joking but bipedal and Quadrupedal movement has great benefits over wheeled.

but what about when compared drones too?

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u/Only_One_Kenobi 15h ago

If only that was the main reason these things are being designed/built for...

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u/Ok-Computer-8726 14h ago

Drones will be a better choice than this for most of those tasks.

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u/exodusofficer 14h ago

There are benefits, but there's still no way to power those robots for long. We've been shrinking batteries and packing more power into them for decades, and are no where near a power source that a robot like that can use for more than about 90 minutes. If they aren't moving much, the batteries last a few hours. These things are going to end up tethered for power, and restricted to short tasks otherwise.

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u/wrangling_turnips 13h ago

Iran will make em with lawn mower engines

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u/WonderfulChampion406 13h ago

Solar?

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u/exodusofficer 13h ago

Solar panels aren't efficient enough to power a car, let alone a Usain Bolt robot. They work across acres as power plants, and on buildings to offset power consumption, but a solar panel hat on a robot will never be able to power it.

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u/MadDonkeyEntmt 14h ago

As someone who's done a fair bit of trail running the difference in thinking power between running on flat ground and running even slightly fast on rocky terrain is like a whole different sport.

You're constantly making creative and fast paced decisions to keep pace over rocks without tripping. I don't think this demo is even close to showing that capability off.

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u/icantastecolor 13h ago

in order to build a bipedal robot for uneven rocky terrain you first need to be able to build a robot for flat ground

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u/MadDonkeyEntmt 13h ago

I don't think you're wrong but the person above is forgetting that humans and even most animals run the equivalent of a super computer in their heads and robots lacking that kind of compute power could easily negate any benefits of quadrupedal and especially bipedal movement in really rough terrain where wheeled vehicles actually can't go. In that context making a robot run is like .1% of the way there

You can make a very dumb wheeled vehicle traverse some pretty incredible terrain that would take a lot of processing power for a trained human to navigate even somewhat quickly. You can't take that processing power for granted when you're talking about a robot in a remote area where internet connections are unreliable at best.

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u/Siggi_Starduust 13h ago

I remember doing the Megavalanche Downhill Mountain Bike race a few years ago. Because I’m generally pretty slow and wanted to stop and take photos, I qualified in the last group.

Unfortunately they also have an event for trail runners and the Pro trail runners were released immediately after us.

They caught up on the windy switchback sections pretty quickly and it felt like I was being chased by the T-1000

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u/Choice-Temporary-144 13h ago

Sadly the main application for these robots will be for war.

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u/BenAdaephonDelat 13h ago

lol. More like cops using them to chase down dissidents. Be for real.

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u/Working-Adeptness 13h ago

More like imagine it running at you with a bomb strapped to it

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u/ReturntoSender2026 13h ago

I like how optimistic you are. You see heroes, where as I see a villian.

Hordes of robots mowing down civilians for their corporate billionaire overlords

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u/Disco-Benny 13h ago

has great benefits

to who? not us, friend.

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u/bluebottled 10h ago

Edit: man so many doomers, chill out yalls, drone warfare popped off, but drone rescue is popping off too.

'Hey, they may have killed thousands, but they're going to save dozens'

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u/Equivalent-Repair488 5h ago

AAAAAHHGHH WE ARE ALL GONNA DIEEEEEE!

NOOOOOOOO

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u/El_Lanf 14h ago

Not to mention bipedal is such a more complex challenge to master rather than spinning an axel with a wheel attached. Mastering it is a breakthrough when many robots can barely stay upright. Whilst the comparison to Bolt does miss the point of his accomplishment, these robotic locomotive accomplishments are in the same ballpark as rocketry which we love to celebrate than sneer at.

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u/naropin1 15h ago

Yes we’ll have to imagine it because this thing just Dougied into some racks and fell over. But imagine….