On April 19, the world's first personal robot half marathon was held in Yizhuang, Beijing. While allowing the audience to see the achievements of technological innovation, the scene of some robot players staggering and circulating on social media: some robots are so tired that they "fall their heads" and stick them on the entire journey with tape; some robots tremble and fall to strike after walking a few steps; some robots hit the guardrail as soon as they started and withdrew from the competition... Many netizens asked: What should we think about the staggering steps of humanoid robot players?

　　The robots on the half marathon track seem not as powerful as they imagined, and even disappointed some netizens.

　　This is also easy to understand. Innovation is never a straight line, because innovation always runs in the "no man's land". This is even more true for some future industries. It is difficult to have precedents to borrow and there is no model to follow. It can only start with trial and error step by step. Just like SpaceX's starship is iteratively reborn in the sound of explosions, China's new energy vehicles break out of their cocoon and become butterflies in the sound of doubts, any maturity of subversive technology will go through a "strike period". And "wrestling" will inevitably be accompanied by some doubts and ridicule.

　　In 1804, when the first steam locomotive was traveling at a "turtle speed" of 8 kilometers per hour on the rails, many onlookers laughed at it for being "not as fast as a carriage"; when Edison's improved carbon wire light lit up in 1879, the gas lamp company also mocked it as "a flash in the pan toy." Looking back at the history of technology, the "first step" of those breakthroughs that changed the process of human civilization often begins with staggering. Now, they have long become the cornerstone of modern civilization.

　　Looking at the problem with this historical depth, we naturally have more confidence and tolerance for the stumble and staggering robots on the marathon track. After all, who doesn’t fall on the road to growth? Falling is not scary, just stand up after falling down; finding a problem is not scary, just solve it after discovering a problem. What I fear is that I give up raising my legs because I am afraid of falling down, and I am afraid of making mistakes and keep my feet away. Technological innovation is like anthropology. To learn how to walk, learn how to fall first, and to find the right direction for development, the problem is the best yardstick.

　　The "man-machine half-horse" in Yizhuang, Beijing, has a total of more than 21 kilometers, which means that a humanoid robot with bipedal gait must complete about 250,000 precision joint movements; a total of 14 turns must be turned, with a turning angle of at least 90°, which requires the robot to have accurate path planning and flexible steering capabilities. It can be said that this kind of scenario where long distances and complexity coexist is an extreme "stress test" for humanoid robots.

　　Testing is for growth. As industry insiders said: "A robot that runs the entire journey is of course valuable, but the failure data of withdrawing from the race in the middle is also worth a fortune." Every fall of the robot records the code of joint structure improvement; the smoke-filled motor forces a breakthrough in cooling technology; the embarrassment of power outages in the middle promotes the innovation of energy management. Therefore, "cutting gold and seizing silver" is not the purpose, and "running" for "running" is not what you want. More importantly, in the process of running, we solve technical problems, engineering problems, and even industrial problems in which robots go from laboratories to factories and towards life service scenarios. From this perspective, the staggering small step of robots is a big step in industrial development.

　　The arrival of the stars and seas requires time to settle; the leap of emerging industries also requires patience to incubate. Under the craze for developing new quality productivity, how to view the twists and turns in exploration and whether it can cultivate an atmosphere of tolerance for innovation will be crucial to the future cultivation and growth of industries.

　　The completion of the robot race is not the end point, but the starting point for further technology optimization and the continued collaborative innovation of the industrial chain. The scratches of the fall may be tomorrow's medal. I believe that one day, the humanoid robot contestant who is walking like a flying game will say to us: This is not my dark history, but my way of coming. (Han Weizheng)

[Editor in charge: Ran Xiaoning]