Robots Race Up 3,100 Steps of Mount Tai — and the Judges Can’t Keep Up

November 1 — The first CMG World Robot Mount Tai Race starts tomorrow (2 November) in Tai’an, Shandong, with robots gathering at the foot of the mountain for a real-world contest on the ancient path from Red Gate to Middle Heaven Gate: 3,100 steps and 600 metres of elevation gain.

CCTV News released a video today explaining how robots find their way, probe the path and improvise. The event steps outside simulated laboratory environments and uses Tai Shan’s one-of-a-kind mountain course, giving mountain-specialised robotics a high-standard proving ground for iteration and deployment.

“The biggest challenge is how robots adapt to Tai Shan’s path,” said chief judge Su Qingwei. “Some steps are high, some low, some wide, some narrow, and there is cobblestone too.” Whether four-legged or two-legged, robots map the route by running the whole ancient path before climbing.

Four-legged robot dogs have a low, stable stance and a flexible gait, so once they have the general direction they can run up. Two-legged humanoid robots are different: taller, with a harder-to-control centre of gravity. To sense each step precisely, they need extra practice. Some humanoids have simply moved their “eyes” down to their chests, lowering their line of sight to watch their footing.

Beyond sensing the surface, humanoids also need “foot feel” — when a foot touches the ground, they adjust stride length and balance using joint forces and posture, continuously and in real time, giving them something like a human reflex.

In earlier qualifiers there was the awkward sight of judges unable to keep up with robots. The organisers responded by changing the format from judges following robots the whole way to judges stationed at checkpoints. “Robots run on electricity, judges run on food,” Su explained. “A robot can swap batteries and speed up again, but a judge’s stamina is limited, so we moved to checkpoint-based judging.”