{"id":16715,"date":"2025-08-15T09:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T09:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=16715"},"modified":"2025-08-15T09:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T09:04:07","slug":"worlds-first-humanoid-robot-games-begin-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=16715","title":{"rendered":"World’s first humanoid robot games begin in China"},"content":{"rendered":"
The world’s first-ever humanoid robot games began Friday in Beijing, with over 500 androids alternating between jerky tumbles and glimpses of real power as they compete in events from the 100-metre hurdles to kung fu.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of robotics teams from 16 countries are going for gold at the Chinese capital’s National Speed Skating Oval, built for the 2022 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n

The games include traditional sports like athletics and basketball, as well as practical tasks such as medicine categorisation and cleaning.<\/p>\n

“I believe in the next 10 years or so, robots will be basically at the same level as humans,” enthusiastic 18-year-old spectator Chen Ruiyuan told AFP.<\/p>\n

Human athletes might not be quaking in their boots just yet.<\/p>\n

At one of the first events on Friday morning, five-aside football, 10 robots the size of seven-year-olds shuffled around the pitch, often getting stuck in a scrum or falling over en masse.<\/p>\n

However, in a 1500-metre race, domestic champion Unitree’s humanoids stomped along the track at an impressive clip, easily outpacing their rivals.<\/p>\n

The fastest robot AFP witnessed finished in 6:29:37, a far cry from the human men’s world record of 3:26:00.<\/p>\n

One mechanical racer barrelled straight into a human operator. The robot remained standing, while the human was knocked flat, though did not appear to be injured.<\/p>\n

Robot competitions have been held for decades, but the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games is the first to focus specifically on robots that resemble human bodies, organisers said.<\/p>\n

The Chinese government has poured support into robotics hoping to lead the industry.<\/p>\n

Beijing has put humanoids in the “centre of their national strategy”, the International Federation of Robotics wrote in a paper on Thursday.<\/p>\n

“The government wants to showcase its competence and global competitiveness in this field of technology,” it added.<\/p>\n

Authorities are working to raise awareness of the sector across society.<\/p>\n

Cui Han, accompanying her 10-year-old, told AFP that her son’s school had organised and paid for the trip to the Games.<\/p>\n

“I hope it will encourage him to learn more about these new technologies,” she said.<\/p>\n

In March, China announced plans for a one-trillion-yuan fund to support technology startups, including those in robotics and AI.<\/p>\n

The country is already the world’s largest market for industrial robots, official statistics show, and in April, Beijing held what organisers dubbed the world’s first humanoid robot half-marathon.<\/p>\n

Chen, the spectator, told AFP he was about to begin studying automation at university.<\/p>\n

“Coming here can cultivate my passion for this field,” he said. “My favourite is the boxing, because… it requires a lot of agility and I can really see how the robots have improved from before.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, at the kung fu competition area, a pint-sized robot resembling one from the popular Transformer series attempted to execute a move, but fell flat on its front.<\/p>\n

It spun around on the floor as it struggled to get back up, the crowd happily cheering.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world’s first-ever humanoid robot games began Friday in Beijing, with over 500 androids alternating between jerky tumbles and glimpses of real power as they compete in events from the 100-metre hurdles to kung fu. Hundreds of robotics teams from 16 countries are going for gold at the Chinese capital’s National Speed Skating Oval, built […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}