Do advanced maneuvers such as running, jumping, and backflips performed by humanoid robots have practical significance in real-world applications?

Do flashy moves like running, jumping, and backflips performed by humanoid robots have any practical significance?

Absolutely! While these actions might seem like "showing off" or "grandstanding," you can entirely view them as an extremely rigorous "final exam." The fact that robots can perform these moves precisely demonstrates that the unseen core technologies behind them have reached a very high level.

Simply put, these actions primarily test and advance several aspects of technology that are crucial for practical applications:

1. Extreme Balance and Stability

• What's being tested: Backflips, standing on one leg, running and jumping on uneven terrain.
• Underlying Technology: This is the ultimate test of a robot's dynamic balance control system. A single backflip requires a series of complex movements—takeoff, mid-air posture adjustment, landing, and stabilizing—all within a fraction of a second, placing extremely high demands on balance calculation and control.
• Practical Applications: You certainly wouldn't want a robot moving goods in a factory to slip because of a bit of oil on the floor, would you? Or a rescue robot in earthquake rubble to trip over a small stone and be unable to get back up? This extreme balance capability is a fundamental prerequisite for ensuring stable operation of robots in complex, unknown environments. Being able to perform a backflip means it has an extremely strong ability to recover balance when bumped, slips, or steps on an obstacle, rather than simply collapsing.

2. Powerful Explosive Force and Speed

• What's being tested: Fast running, jumping high from a standstill.
• Underlying Technology: This tests the robot's power system, especially the performance of its motors (actuators). These actions require instantaneously outputting enormous energy, placing extremely stringent requirements on motor torque, power density, and response speed.
• Practical Applications: In logistics warehouses, robots need to quickly pick up and put down goods to improve efficiency; in hazardous environments, robots need to be able to quickly run away to avoid danger; in home services, a robot that can quickly go up and down stairs is obviously much more practical than a slow one. Powerful dynamics is the physical foundation for robots to efficiently complete tasks.

3. Precise and Fast Control Algorithms

• What's being tested: Performing all these fluid, continuous movements.
• Underlying Technology: Behind this is an extremely complex set of perception and control algorithms. The robot needs to perceive its posture, speed, and position in real-time through various sensors on its body (like human eyes and ears), and then its "brain" (central processing unit) must calculate how all joints should move next and precisely issue commands, all within milliseconds.
• Practical Applications: This is the robot's "cerebellum" and "nervous system." Only a robot with excellent algorithms can interact flexibly and freely with its environment in the real world. For example, it can automatically adjust its walking gait based on the floor material (whether it's carpet or tile), skillfully avoid pedestrians when navigating through crowds, and use just the right amount of force when picking up an egg.

In summary: Just like "concept cars"

You can view these robots performing flashy moves as the "concept cars" or "F1 race cars" of the automotive world.

You wouldn't drive an F1 race car to go grocery shopping, but the advanced technologies validated on F1 race cars—such as engine technology, aerodynamics, and ABS anti-lock braking systems—will eventually be gradually applied to the family cars we drive daily, making them safer, more fuel-efficient, and better performing.

Similarly, you might not ask your robot butler to perform a backflip for entertainment in the future, but it is precisely because high-difficulty actions like "backflips" are used in R&D to test and push technological progress that this robot butler will be able to steadily carry a water glass up the stairs, help you place heavy objects at high places, and even stand firm if you accidentally push it.

Therefore, these "flashy moves" are not just for show; instead, they are an important driving force and touchstone for advancing the practical application of robotics technology as a whole.