Beijing humanoid robots half-marathon rescheduled for April 19

Beijing humanoid robots half-marathon, originally set for Sunday, has to be postponed to April 19 due to the city's high alert for extreme winds, the event's organizing committee said on Thursday.

Beijing's meteorological authorities issued a weather alert on Wednesday, warning residents of extreme winds and cooling temperatures from Friday afternoon to Sunday.

The half-marathon, to be held in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area in southeast Beijing, will mark the first time in the world that robotic and human participants run along the same route on separate tracks.

A humanoid design of participating robots is required, which needs to be capable of bipedal walking or running, but wheeled structures are excluded. The robot teams will be allowed to replace batteries or switch robots in a relay format, but each replacement will receive a 10-minute penalty.

As of now, around 20 robot teams have registered for the upcoming half-marathon, which also attracted about 30,000 human runners signing up for the lottery of 12,000 berths.