Following Press Left Behind: South Korea-China Robot Gap This Wide? 'Shocking'

With the starting signal, a quadrupedal robot powerfully sprints toward Mount Taesan.

This is the 1st World Robot Climbing Competition held at Mount Taesan, famously featured in the poetic verse, "Though Mount Taesan is high, it is still a hill beneath the sky."

The competition consists of four events: a humanoid robot speed race, a multi-legged robot speed race, multi-legged robot cargo transport, and terrain reconnaissance.

In the speed events, the press quickly falls behind while panting for breath, but the robots stride unflinchingly up 3,100 steps of varying heights and widths.

A robot from a Unitree subsidiary won this event, completing a course that typically takes humans an hour and a half to two hours in just 43 minutes and 41 seconds.

Robots participating in the cargo transport event also stably climbed the slopes carrying over 10 kg of cargo, including eggs, bottled water, and instant noodles.

[Liu Yuanchang / China Center for Information Industry Development: The core value of this competition is that it utilizes real-world environments as a natural testing ground for robots. Research teams collect massive amounts of training data from actual tests, providing much smarter robot models that can be applied on a much larger scale.]

There has been widespread criticism that Chinese robots only offered flashy spectacles like kicking or group dances and were far from practical daily use, but the purpose of this event is to verify commercialization potential.

The robots featured in this competition are also expected to be utilized in the future for wildfire prevention patrols, geological disaster monitoring, and transporting relief supplies or garbage in mountainous areas.

[Zhao Ameng / Mount Taesan Scenic Area Employee: About 20,000 tons of waste are generated annually in this scenic area. Most of the collection is done manually, and due to complex weather and terrain, transportation costs are high and efficiency is low.]

Taking advantage of this competition, China plans to expand cooperation among robot companies, universities, and research institutes, as well as attract investment from related businesses.

Reported by Choi Gewoon | Produced by Lee Seyoung | Video by Lee Seung-ryeol | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.