Robotera's STAR1 sets the humanoid running speed record — in sneakers.

Robotera released video of STAR1 clocking 3.6 m/s — roughly 12.9 km/h, or about 8 mph — in the Gobi Desert, the fastest sustained running speed publicly recorded for a full-size humanoid. Two identical STAR1 units were run head to head; the one wearing conventional trail runners beat the barefoot version.

The shoes-versus-no-shoes test wasn't a stunt. Robotera used it to demonstrate that STAR1's control stack could re-learn its foot-ground contact model on the fly — the same problem every humanoid running on unstructured terrain will eventually face.

The record itself is less interesting than the trend it caps. In 18 months, top-line humanoid locomotion speed had roughly tripled. Whether that pace continues will depend less on actuator torque and more on how quickly the field's control policies close the sim-to-real gap for dynamic gaits.