At the 2026 Yizhuang Half Marathon, Honor's humanoid robot “Lightning” completed the 21.1 km course in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, shattering the previous record of 2 hours 40 minutes set in 2025. The approximately threefold improvement is largely attributed to a custom liquid cooling system that keeps critical components cool during high-speed running.
Liquid Cooling Overheats the Old Barriers
High-speed motion generates intense heat in motors, controllers, and batteries, which traditional air cooling struggles to manage. Honor partnered with suppliers such as Huake Lengxin to develop a high-flow liquid pump and micro-channel cooling loop. This system maintains core temperatures below 45°C, allowing Lightning to sustain peak torque without throttling. While last year's robots often slowed due to overheating, Lightning maintained a steady pace of ~2:23/km, approaching amateur elite human performance.
Smartphone Supply Chain Accelerates Development
Honor leveraged its smartphone supply chain to build Lightning, using precision components from Lingyi Zhizao (structural parts) and LanSi Technology (glass/ceramic parts), along with Honor's own motor controllers. This approach reduced hardware validation cycles to 8 months from concept to production, avoiding costly in-house development of motors and gearboxes. The robotics team lead stated: “We didn’t need to reinvent the wheel; the phone supply chain already offers mature high-precision manufacturing capabilities.”
From Marathon to Stores: 'Yuanqi Zai' Goes Commercial
Alongside Lightning, Honor introduced “Yuanqi Zai”, a service robot designed for store greeting, guidance, and inventory inspection. It shares the same core motion platform but features reduced speed, a touch screen, and voice modules. Honor plans to deploy Yuanqi Zai in its over 20,000 physical stores nationwide to collect real-world data before offering the solution to third-party retailers. This approach differs from financing-driven startups, as Honor uses its own retail network as a testbed, reducing commercialization risks.
Competition Heats Up: Humanoid Racing as a Benchmark
Recent events showcase rapid progress: Unitree G1 playing table tennis, Agibot A3 performing gymnastics, Tokyo Robotics unveiling Torobo with teleoperation, and Figure demonstrating infinite body poses. The Yizhuang half marathon has become a benchmark for dynamic stability. The record leap signals that humanoid robots could achieve practical outdoor applications—such as logistics, patrolling, and rescue—within the next two to three years.
This article is based on original content from CryptoComLearn and is for informational purposes only; it does not constitute investment advice.