Robodog Runs Full Marathon

Go, robodog, go.

Dog Racing

A robot dog has run and completed an entire 26.2 mile marathon.

Built by the South Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), the dogged competitor — dubbed RAIBO2 — is the first quadrupedal robot to complete a full-length marathon in an official competition, the university claimed in a statement.

The event took place on Sunday. Clocking in at a time of four hours, 19 minutes, and 52 seconds, the robodog's no Olympian yet; the first place time by a human competitor in the race was two hours, 36 minutes, and 32 seconds, according to The Register.

It's fair to say that slow and steady did not win the race this time — but did get the little machine over the line. And who's to say that the old adage won't be redeemed by a future iteration of the robodog?

Steep Competition

The competition, the 22nd Sangju Dried Persimmon Marathon, is apparently infamous for its arduous hills, including two approximately 50-yard elevation climbs.

That's tough enough for a human runner, and very energy-demanding for a four-legged bot, potentially causing "unexpected losses in efficiency." Depleting its battery pack, after all, would be tantamount to a human competitor dropping out of the race.

But the robodog's engineers had a solution. By simulating the course's hilly environment and its diverse terrains, they were able to develop what they're calling a "high torque transparency joint mechanism" that allows the robot to harvest energy on the downhill slopes, thereby recouping what it lost on the uphill portions.

And that's not all. As anyone who does a lot of running can tell you, all those impacts of your feet striking the ground can take a toll on your joints. It's no different for a robot, meaning that enduring four hours of activity was a testament to the in-house built bot's robustness.

Whirring Up

The robodog, however, faces bipedal competition. Earlier this month, a humanoid robot called "Tiangong" ran alongside human competitors in a half-marathon in China, serving as a pace-setter for the very last 100 yard stretch of the race. Not bad, but it obviously has some catching up to do with our quadruped.

Speaking of: this won't be the last we'll see of RAIBO2, according to its builders.

"Through the marathon project, we demonstrated that RAIBO2 has the walking performance to stably execute services such as delivery and patrol in urban environments with many people and random objects," Choongun Lee, a researcher at KAIST and co-lead author of the studies on the robodog, said in a statement. "In follow-up research, we will add autonomous navigation functions to RAIBO and strive to achieve the world's best walking performance in mountainous and disaster environments."

More on robots: Robot Dog Spotted Guarding Mar-a-Lago