After 55 Hours, Pint-Sized Humanoid Emerges as Winner of First Robot Marathon

Forget about RoboCup, where teams of robots kick soccer balls around indoor fields. The first ever robot marathon finished up over the weekend, and one knee-high humanoid took home the prize with just one second to spare. This video shows the winner's final stretch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khUv7kVnZJc Five robots competed in Robo Mara Full, the world's first marathon for our plastic and metallic friends. The race, funded by the city government of Osaka, began on Friday; 54 hours, 57 minutes, and 50 seconds later, Robovie-PC finally completed its 422th lap, thereby hitting the 26.2-mile mark and sealing the victory. With an average speed of 0.48 miles per hour, these machines are no speed demons. The competition was a cross between a traditional, human-run marathon and a NASCAR race: The robots had to complete the marathon without the help of humans, but the teams were allowed to switch out their robots' batteries and ...