YAN ZHUANG2026年8月25日 Achmad Ibrahim/Associated PressIn 2009, Usain Bolt set the men’s 100-meter dash world record of 9.58 seconds at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin. On Saturday, a humanoid robot developed by the Chinese company X-Humanoid beat that record by 0.19 seconds, according to Chinese state media. The robot ended its sprint by slamming full speed into a padded wall, falling down and being carried away by human assistants.2009年，尤塞恩·博尔特在柏林世界田径锦标赛上创造了9.58秒的男子100米短跑世界纪录。据中国官方媒体报道，上周六，由中国公司北京人形机器人创新中心有限公司(X-Humanoid)开发的一款人形机器人以0.19秒的优势打破了该纪录。这台机器人在全速撞上一堵软垫墙后结束了冲刺，随后倒在地上，被人类助手抬走。High-profile feats of robotic athleticism have become increasingly common in China, where a humanoid robotics industry has flourished, aided by generous state support and billions in investment. Robots have danced and performed martial arts at the country’s top events.在中国，机器人展示运动天赋的高调壮举正变得越来越普遍。在国家的大力支持和数十亿资金的投资下，中国的人形机器人产业蓬勃发展。在该国的重要活动中，机器人曾表演过舞蹈和武术。At the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing over the weekend, they boxed and participated in soccer matches. One played tennis against a human opponent, moving across the court and angling itself to return volleys. Earlier this year, a robot ran a marathon faster than any human in history.在上周末于北京举行的世界人形机器人运动会上，它们进行了拳击和足球比赛。其中一台机器人与人类对手进行了网球比赛，它在球场上移动，调整角度回击截击球。今年早些时候，一台机器人以超越历史上任何人类的速度跑完了一场马拉松。But what do these robotic superhuman feats amount to?但是，这些机器人超越人类的壮举究竟意味着什么呢？“Most of the sports the humanoids are doing don’t directly translate into utility for many of the mundane tasks people are trying to get humanoids to perform, like being useful around the house,” said Michael Milford, a professor and director of the robotics center at Queensland University of Technology in Australia.澳大利亚昆士兰科技大学教授兼机器人中心主任迈克尔·米尔福德表示：“人形机器人参与的大多数体育项目并不能直接转化为人们希望它们完成的大量日常任务的实用价值，比如在家庭中提供帮助。”The robots are “capable in very specific and somewhat contrived events,” he said.他说，这些机器人“在非常具体、且有些刻意安排的赛事中表现出色”。Chinese media has also acknowledged the gulf between athleticism and real-world applications in its coverage of the games.中国媒体在报道本届赛事时也承认了竞技表现与实际应用之间存在的鸿沟。“A factory robot does not need to win a sprint, nor does a service robot need a medal,” read a commentary in Xinhua, the state news agency. “But every gain in speed, stability and precision on the competition floor can bring robots one step closer to becoming genuinely useful beyond it.”国家通讯社新华社的一篇评论写道：“工厂机器人不需要赢得短跑比赛，服务机器人也不需要奖牌。但是，在赛场上速度、稳定性和精度的每一次提升，都能让机器人距离在赛场外变得真正实用更近一步。”Even without significant and proven real-world applications, these high-profile displays and the attention they have attracted are already paying some dividends. Unitree Robotics — a humanoid robotics company whose videos of robots performing kung fu, kickboxing and back flips have attracted millions of views online, and whose robots featured heavily at the Humanoid Robot Games last year — debuted on the Shanghai stock market last week. Its shares ended their first day of trading up by more than 460 percent.即使没有重大且经过验证的实际应用，这些高调的展示以及它们所吸引的关注也已经带来了一些红利。宇树科技是一家人形机器人公司，其机器人表演功夫、踢拳和后空翻的视频在网上吸引了成百上千万次观看，其机器人还在去年的人形机器人运动会上大放异彩。该公司上周在上海证券交易所上市。其股票在首个交易日收盘时上涨了超过460%。Progress and Imperfection进步与不完美Alan Fern, a robotics professor at Oregon State University, was part of a research team that set the Guinness World Record for the fastest 100-meter run by a robot on two legs in 2022. That robot ran it in 24.73 seconds. To go from that, in four years, to X-Humanoid’s 9.39 seconds was an “enormous achievement,” he said.俄勒冈州立大学机器人学教授艾伦·费恩曾参与一个研究团队，该团队在2022年创造了双足机器人100米跑最快的吉尼斯世界纪录。当时那台机器人的成绩是24.73秒。他表示，在四年内从那个成绩提升到X-Humanoid的9.39秒是一项“巨大的成就”。But he noted that robotics companies have become relatively experienced in making robots that can run, jump and do acrobatics in controlled environments. He added that incremental improvements in these sports are mostly related to developing better hardware and refining the controls, rather than any significant technological breakthrough.但他指出，机器人公司在制造能够在受控环境中跑、跳和做杂技的机器人方面已经变得相对有经验。他还说，在这些运动项目上的渐进式改善主要归功于开发了更好的硬件和改进了控制系统，而不是因为任何重大的技术突破。The robot at the games in Beijing that could play tennis against a human was more impressive, he said, because that involved interacting with something unpredictable.他说，在北京运动会上那台能与人类打网球的机器人更令人印象深刻，因为这涉及到与不可预测的事物进行交互。Most robots struggle in situations where they need to adapt to changing situations. Yet the tennis robot had to track a fast-moving ball, decide where to move, coordinate its body and time the strike.大多数机器人在需要适应不断变化的情境时都会遇到困难。然而，这台网球机器人必须追踪快速移动的球，决定移动方向，协调身体，把握击球时机。The robots are still far from perfect, with accidents abounding at the games. Robots fell down, sparked small fires and crashed into objects, according to videos of the event. The unusual running style of one machine, with its arms up near its face, earned it the nickname “shy robot” on the social media platform Weibo. Many of the racing robots did not seem capable of slowing down on their own and instead stopped by running into a padded barrier.机器人距离完美仍有很长的路要走，运动会上事故频发。根据赛事的视频，机器人出现了摔倒、引发小火和撞上物体的情况。一台机器人的跑步姿势十分奇特，双臂举在脸部附近，在社交媒体平台微博上被戏称为“害羞机器人”。许多参加赛跑的机器人似乎无法自行减速，而是要撞向软垫护栏才停下来。上周六在北京举行的“世界人形机器人运动会”上，来自银河通用的一台机器人在与人类选手的表演赛中打网球。 Florence Lo/Reuters周六在北京举行的世界类人机器人运动会100米预赛中，一台机器人在冲过终点线后摔倒并起火。 Lintao Zhang/Getty ImagesThe vision of humanoid robots eventually being able to do anything a human can do is still far away, Mr. Fern said.费恩表示，让人形机器人最终能够做到人类能做的任何事情，这样的愿景仍然很遥远。“Outside entertainment and a limited number of tightly constrained industrial settings, these robots do not yet have the general-purpose intelligence and reliability needed to operate in messy real-world environments,” he said.“除了娱乐和少数受到严格限制的工业环境之外，这些机器人目前还不具备在杂乱无章的现实世界环境中运行所需的通用智能和可靠性，”他说。Mr. Milford said that it could take many years before robots can safely and reliably perform in everyday settings.米尔福德表示，可能还需要许多年，机器人才能在日常环境中安全可靠地运行。He drew a comparison to self-driving cars: Three or four decades ago, a self-driving car could drive across a continent on highways. But only in recent years has the technology become advanced and safe enough for such cars to be deployed widely and largely without incident.他以自动驾驶汽车为例进行类比：三四十年前，自动驾驶汽车就可以在高速公路上横跨一个大陆。但直到最近几年，这项技术才变得足够先进和安全，使得这类汽车能够被广泛部署且基本上不发生事故。Car racing may be another good analogy, Mr. Fern said. “We still marvel at the engineering achievements in Formula 1, and some of those advances eventually transfer elsewhere, but we do not interpret every faster lap as a revolution in transportation,” he said.赛车可能是另一个很好的类比，费恩说。“我们仍然对一级方程式赛车的工程成就感到惊叹，其中一些进步最终也转移到了其他领域，但我们并没有将每一次单圈速度的提升都视为交通运输领域的革命，”他说。2009年，尤塞恩·博尔特（中）在柏林参加男子100米决赛，他在这里创造了世界纪录。“Similarly, beating Usain Bolt does not mean that the robot has surpassed humans at locomotion in any general sense,” he added.“同样，击败尤塞恩·博尔特并不意味着机器人在一般意义上的运动能力已经超越了人类，”他还说。Mr. Bolt did not respond to a request for comment.博尔特没有回应置评请求。Siyi Zhao对本文有研究贡献。Yan Zhuang是时报驻首尔记者，报道突发新闻。翻译：纽约时报中文网点击查看本文英文版。