Canine robots tackle Mount Tai’s steep steps during the World Mountain Robot Challenge in China's Shandong province. (YouTube pic)BEIJING: Dozens of robots took on more than 3,000 steps up one of China's most famous peaks Monday, carrying eggs and watermelons in a race organisers billed as a test of real-world machine endurance.
For hundreds of years, Mount Tai - the tallest peak in China's eastern Shandong province - was an important pilgrimage for Chinese emperors and features prominently in Chinese mythology.
However, on Monday, the Unesco World Heritage site hosted technologies of the future as part of a new World Mountain Robot Challenge.
Over a 3.9km course with more than 600m of ascent, robots and their engineers from around 90 teams were tasked with either completing the route as fast as possible or transporting fragile goods like fresh eggs and watermelons to the summit.
