The 2023 Asian Games, which began on September 23 and will continue through October 8, have seen many athletes displaying their skills in Hangzhou, China, but the athletes aren’t the only ones being noticed for how they move.
A video posted to X shows robotic dogs at work fetching discuses for the event. In the clip, the four-legged friends, which have to cover an average of 390 feet for each discus thrown, were seen running on the tracks at the Hangzhou Asian Games, each carrying a discus collected after being thrown by an athlete. After completing the task, the robot lies down just like a real dog before heading off for the next disc. It marks the first time robotic dogs have been used for transporting sports equipment at an international event.
Event organizers hope the robotic dogs will lessen the burden on humans at the event. According to the organizers, the dogs are 30 percent faster than humans and have reduced the workload of three volunteers per task. Once the discus is placed into a particular slot on the robot, event officials can control the robot dogs to walk the discus back to the start. All told, the robots are said to cover more than 4 miles of running with an average of 60 round trips per match.
The robots were designed by a Chinese startup company called Deep Robotics, which also showcased the computerized canines at the Smart Technology Experience Center within the Asian Games Village to welcome visitors and to show off more of their moves. At the event, the dogs could be seen dancing to the event’s theme song, “The Love We Share.”
While these particular dogs can move, their speed—comparable to a human’s average jogging speed—can’t match Cassie’s, the Oregon-based robot that set a world record last year in the 100 meters with a time of 24.73. As fast as she is, however, Cassie isn’t quite as cute as the Asian Games dogs.
Laura Ratliff is a New York City-based writer, editor, and runner. Laura's writing expertise spans numerous topics, ranging from travel and food and drink to reported pieces covering political and human rights issues. She has previously worked at Architectural Digest, Bloomberg News, and Condé Nast Traveler and was most recently the senior editorial director at TripSavvy. Like many of us, Laura was bitten by the running bug later in life, after years of claiming to "hate running." Her favorite marathon is Big Sur.
