If you also think a robot Olympics is on the verge of happening anytime soon. You could just be right. If and when that happens, Unitree’s “Superman” would probably break American swimmer Michael Phelps’ record for the most gold medals in a single Olympic Games.
To give us a glimpse of that future, China’s Unitree – which recently became the first general-purpose robotics company to debut on Shanghai’s stock exchange – unveiled a humanoid robot on August 17, which it says “can outrun and outjump top human athletes.”
Designer: Unitree
In the demo video doing rounds on the internet, the Unitree Superman (as the humanoid robot is called) can be seen pulling off a standing high jump of 2 meters. It also makes a dash at the speed of 12.66 meters per second, which is a tad faster than the 12.4 m/s speed that Usain Bolt achieved when he completed the world-record-setting 100 m run in only 9.58 seconds. This calculation would stand true if the Unitree humanoid runs 100 meters at the same speed that it has clocked in its demo dash.
With the kind of feat the Chinese Superman has pulled off, it has conveniently surpassed human ability by a margin. With this standing high jump and running speed, it has done what no human has ever achieved. And considering the progress companies like Unitree are making on robots in the labs, gyms, and training grounds, we are going to fall behind, and robots will throw us on the sidelines to conduct their own Olympics Games soon.
Hangzhou-based Unitree has been ahead of most robotic companies in China. In fact, it is considered the most influential one, with backing from companies including Tencent, DeepSeek, and Alibaba. Its fanfare can be gauged from the unprecedented IPO it made. The company’s stock, according to Bloomberg, skyrocketed by 629% to a $66 billion valuation on its first day of trading on August 19.
The IPO from the company, which already has a robot dog, humanoid kung fu fighter, and a service robot on the market, has left all financial pundits bewildered. And the new achievement of the Superman humanoid has only substantiated investors’ faith.
According to Unitree, the jumping and speeding robot, which has 0.85-meter-long legs, is a work in progress and is likely to feature improvements to its capabilities in the coming months. Until that news comes in, you can check out some of the more extraordinary Unitree robots, like the transforming Mecha robot or this one that can even do cartwheels.
