Robots are storming China's sacred mountain and leaving referees behind

The first world championship for robots climbing Mount Tai kicked off in China's Shandong province on November 2. It is one of the most famous mountains in China, and the way up is a long climb on narrow ancient stone steps that leave people out of breath too.

Humanoids got a route of about 1.6 km from Hongmen Square to Doumu Temple, with more than 600 steps. Four-legged robots had it harder: 3.9 km to the Zhongtianmen station, over 3,100 steps and roughly 600 meters of climb. Besides the speed races there is cargo carrying modeled on the mountain's human porters, exoskeleton trials and a separate challenge for wheeled, tracked and spherical machines.

Footage from day one shows what it looks like up close: robot number 2 overtakes its rival on a narrow staircase, number 3 tries to speed up and win the spot back, and goes down. The robot dogs, meanwhile, were so fast that human referees couldn't keep up and had to come up with new rules for tracking them. One dog got so far ahead of its handler that it stopped and waited for the human to catch up.

It all runs on lidar and cameras: the robots build a 3D map of the slope, recognize steps and obstacles, and the control system watches joint load and body tilt on the move, adjusting stride length to stay upright.

Not long ago humanoids were shown at expos taking careful steps on a flat floor. Now they race each other up a mountain on ancient steps. They fall, but they race.