Thousands of humanoid robots take part in half marathon

A robot attends the Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon held in Beijing (Ng Han Guan/AP)

In one small step for robot-kind – thousands of them, really – humanoid robots ran alongside actual humans in a half-marathon in the Chinese capital Beijing on Saturday.

The bipedal robots of various makes and sizes navigated the 13.1-mile course supported by teams of human navigators, operators, and engineers, in what event organizers say was a first.