Florida State robotics professor Christian Hubicki, a star from reality TV's "Survivor," breaks down why humanoid robots can now outrun Usain Bolt — but still lack the intelligence to reliably think, react and stop.
The World Humanoid Robot Games made headlines this week, putting robotics experts in awe and leaving social media scrollers laughing at the robots’ histrionics, viral stumbles, and dramatic crashes and burns.
In its second year, it is making an annual event out of stress-testing the limits of technological advancement, while allaying fears to the public that SkyNet is not on the verge of taking over the world.
"The goal of this event really was to show how fast we can get robots to go," Christian Hubicki, Florida State University mechanical-engineering professor and robotics lab director, told Fox News Digital on the final day of the five-day event. "What happens to them afterwards? Well, as we can see, it's a bit dramatic.
"They didn't care so much how they stopped. In fact, they had this big wall that they just smashed into."
LET'S LOOK BACK ON THE BEST MOMENTS (READ: CRASHES) FROM THE WORLD HUMANOID ROBOT GAMES
The robots might be running faster than Usain Bolt before they know how to stop, but the tech is still at the stage of standing up from a crawl, according to Hubicki, who is also known for being a past contestant on the CBS reality TV show "Survivor."
"They wanted to break the record, and they're willing to break the robots to do it," Hubicki said. "You can see robots are sparking, limbs are flying off. It's incredibly kinetic. It's like these things are almost like missiles flying at this wall. All to break the record."
The record broken was Bolt's 9.58 seconds in the 100-meter dash, but in a show of just how fast the robots can go and technology can advance, Saturday's 9.39 mark only lasted a few days.
A Chinese humanoid robot – Tiangong Ultra, developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre – on the event's final day won the large-size robot 100-meter final at 8.64 seconds, almost a second faster than Bolt's human world-record time.
CHINESE MARATHON ROBOT FALLS, BREAK DANCES ITSELF TO PIECES
Humanoid robots show they can beat the world's fastest man in the 100-meter dash, but they cannot stop without a blue wall. (Tingshu Wang/Reuters)
China's World Humanoid Robot Games was a beautiful mix of incredible technological displays and Three Stooges-esque slapstick comedy. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
Staff members move the humanoid robots onto stretchers after crashing into the blue-cushioned wall upon completing a 100-meter race on Aug. 22, 2026. (Florence Lo/Reuters)
Spectators watch as a Lightning humanoid robot by Honor and a Tiangong Ultra humanoid robot compete in a 100-meter exhibition race. (Florence Lo/Reuters)
