Unitree shows off its new Superman robot that it says can outrun Usain Bolt and jump 6.5 feet

What just happened? It's not just rogue AI agents we have to worry about. Humanoid robots that once staggered around like drunks now appear able to run faster and jump higher than any human. Unitree says its new "Superman" robot can reach a top speed of 28.3 miles per hour, faster than Usain Bolt. The company has also released a video showing off those feats.

Unitree claims the prototype, which has 0.85-meter-long (2.7-foot) legs, can clear a 2-meter (6.5-foot) standing high jump and reach 12.66 meters per second. That narrowly exceeds the widely cited 12.42 m/s peak Bolt hit during his world-record 9.58-second 100-meter run in Berlin in 2009.

Despite the speed, Superman has an unusual gait that makes it appear to be constantly on the verge of falling forward. The figures have not been independently verified, and briefly reaching a claimed top speed is not the same as completing a measured 100-meter race.

Unitree said it developed the robot in just over three months. The machine remains a work in progress, and the company expects to make significant improvements over the coming months. Unitree also says it had produced and delivered around 18,000 bipedal humanoid robots across several models by the end of July.

There's a good reason Unitree has chosen now to reveal its superbot. The Hangzhou-based company is set to begin trading on Shanghai's STAR Market on August 19 after raising 6.1 billion yuan (about $905 million) in an initial public offering last week. Its retail tranche was more than 8,000 times oversubscribed, a record for the exchange. The listing will make Unitree the first general-purpose robotics company to trade on mainland China's stock market.

Unitree's machines are advancing at a rapid pace. It was only in April that its H1 humanoid was shown sprinting down an athletics track at a recorded peak of 10.1 meters per second (below). Unitree acknowledged that the measuring equipment could be subject to error, and it did not provide a complete 100-meter time.

For comparison, the Tien Kung Ultra won the 100-meter race at last year's inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games in 21.50 seconds, beating two Unitree H1 robots. That works out to an average speed of 4.65 m/s, well below Superman's claimed peak.

Beijing will host the second World Humanoid Robot Games from August 22 through August 26. The event will feature 2,056 robots from 666 teams competing in 30 events and tackling 21 scenario-based challenges. There's no word on whether Superman will take part, but the other bot makers might be a bit worried that it'll show up.