A CHINESE research team has unveiled a full-size humanoid robot that can sprint at a peak speed of 10 meters per second, a velocity that outpaces most humans and approaches the limits of elite human sprinters.

The robot, nicknamed “Bolt” after Jamaican legend Usain Bolt, was developed by a humanoid innovation institute at Zhejiang University in East China, in collaboration with Hangzhou-based robotics startups Mirror Me and Kaierda.

Bolt stands 175 cm tall and weighs 75 kg. Its makers say the achievement represents a major breakthrough in robot locomotion control, dynamic balance and high‑performance drive systems. A video released by the developers shows Mirror Me founder Wang Hongtao running on a treadmill alongside the red‑painted metallic android. Although Bolt’s strides are shorter than a human’s, it achieves a much higher cadence and continued accelerating to its top speed while the human runner had to stop due to fatigue.

Bolt’s 10 m/s peak speed brings it close to the average speed of Usain Bolt’s 9.58‑second 100 m world record, which translates to roughly 10.44 m/s, underscoring how near the robot now is to world‑class human capability. The team says the milestone not only demonstrates high sprinting performance but also signals progress in transferring advanced motion control techniques from four‑legged to bipedal platforms.

The same group set a speed benchmark for quadruped robots in 2025 with its Black Panther series. In that run, the Black Panther II reportedly achieved 10.3 m/s, breaking a long‑standing speed record and eclipsing results from established players in the field. The new humanoid accomplishment builds on that prior work, showing the team’s ability to extend high‑speed locomotion expertise into human‑shaped robots.(SD-Agencies)