Japanese Firm to Train Robot Equipped with AI to Reproduce Japanese Runners’ Movements

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:54 JST, April 3, 2026

GMO Internet Group, Inc. said Thursday it will launch a trial project to have a humanoid robot learn how to run by gathering data from top Japanese runners and having it reproduce the runners’ movements using artificial intelligence.

According to the company, it will be the world’s first attempt to have a robot autonomously replicate human running based on data obtained from sensors and other means.

The running motions of athletes on GMO’s track and field team — which includes Yuya Yoshida, who represented Japan in last year’s World Athletics Championships marathon in Tokyo, and Asahi Kuroda, who excelled in the Tokyo-Hakone Intercollegiate Ekiden this year — will be quantified, and the data will be input into the company’s AI platform.

The AI platform will then be installed in G1, the humanoid robot developed by Chinese company Unitree.

The G1 robot stands 1.3 meters tall and weighs 35 kilograms. Currently, it can run at a maximum speed of 3 meters per second, meaning it can run 100 meters in about 30 seconds.

During a demonstration session in Kawasaki on Thursday, the robot did not seem able to run along the lanes and even fell at times.

Although the G1 is still in the development stage, GMO aims to win a track and field event with its robot at the World Humanoid Robot Games to be held in China in August.

GMO owns 10 humanoid robots and is dispatching them to companies and other entities. Within a few years, the company aims to utilize these robots for tasks such as delivering goods in warehouses and factories as well as engaging in rescue operations during disasters.