Watch Beijing pull off the first ever underwater Olympic torch relay between two submersible robots
- China has pulled off a world first — an underwater torch relay between two robots.
- The relay took place at Lake Yongding, and featured two curling-stone shaped droids.
China has released a video of the Olympic flame being passed from one robot to another underwater — a world first.
According to state-linked media Global Times, the submersible robots met in the middle of the icy Yongding River in Beijing on Wednesday and participated in an eight-minute relay beneath the waters.
In the video, two amphibious droids in the shape of a curling stone drop into the water. Robot arms holding torches then extend from each droid, and the flame passes from one torch to the other.
This is the first time that two robots passed the Olympic flame to each other underwater.
For the Sydney 2000 Olympics, the Olympic flame went underwater in a world first, when marine biologist Wendy Craig Duncan set off a special flare at the Great Barrier Reef.
The Sochi 2014 Winter Games also saw an underwater leg in the torch relay, when torchbearers took the flame 42 feet beneath the surface of Lake Baikal.
South Korea then upped the ante, involving the "Crabster," a half-ton, six-legged deep-sea exploration robot, in the torch relay for the Pyeongchang Games.
China will hold the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games on February 4, at 8 p.m. local time, at the Chinese capital's Bird's Nest stadium.