At the second World Humanoid Robot Games, held from August 22 to 26 at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, Honor's self-developed humanoid robots, Flash and Yuanqizai, competed fully autonomously. The standout performer, Flash, captured global attention by breaking human world records in five track and field events.
In the 1500m final, Flash clocked an incredible 2 minutes and 30 seconds, surpassing the human world record. It then delivered a stunning 39.45-second performance in the 400m final, outpacing Wayde van Niekerk's Olympic record of 43.03 seconds. The highlight came in the 100m repechage, where Flash recorded a blistering 8.94 seconds, eclipsing Usain Bolt's human record of 9.58 seconds. During preparations, it also achieved a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second, exceeding the fastest human sprint velocity ever recorded. Earlier, the robot had already set a human half-marathon world record with a time of 50 minutes and 26 seconds.
Where the speed comes from
Behind these five record-breaking feats lies significant engineering advancement. In discussions with the media, Honor's technical team detailed how they addressed three core dimensions: speed, stability, and safety. To transform Flash from a half-marathon endurance runner into a short-distance sprinter, the R&D team implemented targeted upgrades. These included lengthening the legs by 10 centimeters to increase stride length, applying topological weight reduction across the entire structure to make the body lighter, and enhancing the torque and response speed of the joint modules. Testing during preparation showed peak velocities far surpassing the 7 to 8 meters per second achieved during the half-marathon phase in April.
Mastering stability and balance
Stability presented its own set of challenges. After crashing into the wall at the end of the 100m dash, Flash regained its balance in just two steps backward. Honor's engineers emphasized that this involves three key technical hurdles. First, the robot relies on extreme transient perception and response, using high-frequency sensors and on-device computing to accurately calculate its unbalanced state within milliseconds. Second, it employs flexible control and impact absorption, where the motors instantly switch from high-torque output to a shock-absorbing buffer mode. Third, dynamic center-of-gravity recovery requires the system to compute the optimal foothold and drive the motors to rapidly step backward to "catch" the center of gravity. A delay of even one-thousandth of a second in stride or response time could result in a failed recovery.
Built for safety and resilience
Beyond speed and stability, Flash's ability to fall and quickly get back up to finish the race has become a hallmark feature. Throughout the competition, it never withdrew, never fell apart, and never caught fire. This reliability even earned a repost and like from Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Honor states that this resilience validates the system's extremely low latency and high reliability under severe physical impact. It also provides valuable technical groundwork for future applications in factory inspections and store services, where robots may face unexpected collisions.
Lessons from smartphones
Notably, the technology powering Honor's robots is not built from scratch. The exceptional endurance, heat dissipation, and reliability demonstrated on the track are directly inherited from the technical DNA of the Honor Magic series. Over the past decade, Honor has accumulated foundational engineering capabilities in energy supply, thermal management, and precision manufacturing within the consumer electronics sector. Guided by its Alpha strategy, these capabilities are now being rapidly transferred to robotics. Conversely, the technologies honed under extreme conditions are set to make a full return in the Magic9 series, giving every device the same championship-grade performance as the robot that conquered the track.