Humans can no longer keep up with robots. Liquid cooling has "made great contributions."

Humans can no longer outrun robots!

Last weekend, the Beijing Yizhuang Robot Half Marathon officially kicked off. During the event, the Monkey King Team, Thunderbolt Team, and Spark Igniting the Prairie Team from Honor won the championship, runner - up, and third place respectively. They all surpassed the men's half - marathon world record of 57 minutes and 20 seconds set by Ugandan star Kipruto in the Lisbon Half Marathon in March this year, becoming the biggest highlight of this competition.

Why did the newly participating team win the championship at one go? When interviewed on - site, Honor engineers said that there are two key factors for the victory: first, referring to top human athletes, they created a lightweight body with 0.95 - meter long legs; second, they self - developed and cross - transplanted a dedicated liquid - cooling heat dissipation solution.

On the race track, Honor's robots carried liquid - cooling radiators and continued to run. This special configuration quickly triggered a heated discussion across the network.

“The difficulties of implementing liquid cooling are mainly concentrated in two aspects: additional load and the design of dedicated pipelines. Many robots were not designed for extreme scenarios like marathons at the beginning. Even if they want to install liquid cooling later, it is very difficult,” an insider in the robot industry explained to a reporter from IT Times. Most humanoid robots are only adapted to daily walking and routine operation scenarios in the early stage of R & D. It is difficult to retrofit or install liquid - cooling modules later due to insufficient compatibility.

What makes liquid cooling powerful? It maximizes heat dissipation and stabilizes power

During long - term continuous running, the joint motors of humanoid robots operate under high load for a long time, and heat accumulates rapidly. Once the temperature exceeds the standard, the frequency - reduction protection will be triggered, directly causing power attenuation and jerky movements. This is also the core pain point restricting the long - distance running ability of robots. At this time, a suitable heat dissipation solution is needed.

In the first Beijing Yizhuang Robot Marathon in 2025, the robot of the Tsinghua University team overheated at the joints. An accompanying engineer used a liquid nitrogen spray can to cool it down urgently, and it restarted in just 3 minutes.

“What was sprayed was not water, but liquid nitrogen,” the above - mentioned insider explained. Liquid nitrogen can provide instantaneous cooling and act on exposed local joints such as the knees. However, its cooling effect is short - lived and the coverage area is limited. It can only be used as a temporary remedial measure and cannot support long - distance continuous movement.

This year, the heat dissipation methods have been greatly upgraded. In a video released by CCTV News, the YuShu H1 only needs 30 to 40 seconds to recharge. After the robot stands still, three people operate simultaneously: changing the battery, adding ice cubes to cool the chips, and spraying CRC ultra - fast refrigerant on the joints. The refrigerant can volatilize quickly, is non - conductive, and leaves no residue. It can prevent the motor from overheating and stalling, allowing the robot to quickly “fully recover” and set off again.

Compared with the emergency cooling modes of liquid nitrogen and CRC ultra - fast refrigerant, the closed - loop liquid - cooling heat dissipation technology has the advantage of all - around and long - term temperature control. The complete liquid - cooling circulation pipeline covers core heat - generating components such as motors, with a wider temperature - control range and higher heat - dissipation efficiency.

Honor engineers said on - site that relying on the mature heat - dissipation capabilities of a leading terminal manufacturer to complete the technology transfer, the self - developed liquid - cooling system performs stably. Even after running the entire 21 - kilometer half - marathon, the core motor of the robot still remains at a low temperature, effectively avoiding high - temperature frequency reduction and continuously locking in high - power and stable output.

As the outdoor temperature gradually rises in April, the lightweight body design combined with the self - developed liquid cooling allows Honor's robots to run with a light and natural posture, a stable and smooth stride, and calmly face long - distance continuous racing challenges.

“It can also be seen from the on - site video that Honor's robots adopt a lightweight design for the upper body, streamline and optimize the lower - limb structure, and enhance the performance of the hip forward - swing motor,” the above - mentioned insider speculated. Honor may have streamlined the degrees of freedom of the ankle joints, abandoned redundant motors and connecting - rod structures, strictly controlled its own weight on the premise of ensuring basic movement ability, and reduced the movement load and additional heat generation from the source.

What are the difficulties of liquid cooling? It's a double test of load and design

Although liquid cooling is good, not everyone can “install” it on robots.

There are still many real - world barriers in cross - applying liquid cooling from fixed - scenario servers to dynamically running humanoid robots. This is also an important reason why most manufacturers dare not easily enter this field.

The most direct problem is “load”. A set of liquid - cooling systems, including a heat - dissipation backpack, circulation pipeline, booster pump, and coolant, adds up to a considerable weight. “Robots are very sensitive to weight when running. An extra pound may affect balance, increase the burden on joints, make the motor consume more power and generate more heat, creating a vicious cycle,” an insider explained.

What's more troublesome is that when many mass - produced robots were designed, they only considered daily walking and simple operations, and there was no space reserved for liquid - cooling equipment at all. “External installation is possible, but it will damage the integrity, expose the liquid - cooling device, and make it more vulnerable to damage. Internal installation requires pre - design,” the above - mentioned insider said.

“It can be seen from the video that there is no liquid - cooling device installed at the knees of Honor's robots,” the above - mentioned insider speculated. Some traces of technical trade - offs can be seen from the on - site video: the liquid - cooling heat - dissipation pipeline is laid in the static area of the robot's upper body. However, key joints such as the knees, which have high - frequency flexion and extension and large - amplitude movements, cannot meet the bending requirements of flexible pipelines. They may still need the assistance of liquid nitrogen or refrigerant for cooling.

Image source: Internet

In addition, when the robot runs, the legs swing greatly and the body bumps continuously, which can easily cause failures such as pipeline wear and medium leakage. This puts forward higher requirements for sealing technology and the quality of flexible materials.

Currently, the R & D cost and the difficulty of miniaturization and integration have further raised the threshold for the large - scale implementation of liquid - cooling solutions for humanoid robots. However, in the future, with the continuous iteration of lightweight liquid - cooling technology and the in - depth integration of structural design and heat - dissipation systems, this hardcore technology may gradually penetrate into civilian scenarios such as service and retail, allowing humanoid robots to truly step out of the laboratory and integrate into daily applications.

This article is from the WeChat official account “IT Times” (ID: vittimes), author: Mao Yu. Republished by 36Kr with permission.