Beijing hosts training session for second humanoid robot half-marathon

Company representatives, researchers, and university students gathered on Sunday to participate in a training session for the upcoming second humanoid robot half-marathon, scheduled for April 2026 in Beijing.

The training took place in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, known as Beijing E-Town. It advertised itself as China's first full-stack developer community for embodied intelligent robots.

The race is set to occur on April 19 in E-Town, the same location where the world's inaugural robot half-marathon was held last year.

This year's training focuses on the 2026 RoboBaturu Challenge, a fresh event for this year's competition. Baturu, meaning "hero" in Mongolian, emphasizes emergency rescue training scenarios for natural disasters.

The new event is to be held concurrently with the race. It will comprise 17 challenges categorized into four groups: general challenges, separate challenges for humanoid robots and quadruped robots, and additional challenges.

The tasks evaluate the robots' performance in emergencies, such as navigating ruins and transporting supplies, with the goal of creating an integrated platform for technical training.

During the training, 10 robot teams will be selected to participate in the final contest.

Additionally, Beijing E-Town announced the upcoming launch of the E-Bot Hub, an online community dedicated to sharing information and knowledge on robot research and development, which will be available later this month.