China will host the world's first humanoid robot half-marathon next month.

The Beijing Municipal Government announced Tuesday that the world's first humanoid robot half-marathon will be held in conjunction with the Beijing E-Town Half Marathon on April 13th.

It was previously reported that 12,000 runners and more than 20 Chinese humanoid robotics companies would be participating in the 21.0975-kilometer half-marathon.

Li Quan, an official from the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, said the humanoid robots will start at the same time as the athletes at the starting point and run the same route, but with a separate track.

Throughout the race, the organizers of the event will use iron railings or green belts to conduct isolation, in order to ensure the safety of humans and robots.

He said that according to the research and judgment, the event will set the closing time for the robots at about 3 hours and 30 minutes.

In the course of the competition, participants can replace the battery for their own robots, but also can complete the full competition by replacing the robot in relay form.

Li said that the robot to participate in this year's competition should have a humanoid appearance, can realize the bipedal walking or running and other actions, rather than wheeled structure.

In terms of control, the robot can be manually remote-controlled (including semi-autonomous) or fully autonomous.

It is worth noting that the tournament will also prepare generous rewards for humanoid robot R&D teams to express the recognition and encouragement of the hard work of the innovative R&D teams.