logo
Watch: World Humanoid Robot Games kick off in Beijing

Watch: World Humanoid Robot Games kick off in Beijing

UPI3 days ago
Aug. 15 (UPI) -- The World Humanoid Robot Games kicked off in Beijing, with AI-powered robots built by teams from around the globe competing in sports including kickboxing, track, soccer and dance.
The event held its opening ceremony on Thursday, which featured some of the first mishaps of the games, including a robot falling over while attempting to light the torch for the games.
The games feature more than 500 robots from 16 countries, including Japan, the United States and Germany, competing in 26 events.
One robot was disqualified from Friday's 1,500-meter race when its head fell off in mid-stride.
"Keeping [the head] balanced while in movement is the biggest challenge for us," Wang Ziyi, 19, a member of the Beijing Union University team, told The Guardian.
A soccer game on Friday also featured a mishap when a robot tripped and several other mechanical players to fall, requiring human intervention to clear the hazard.
The World Humanoid Robot Games run through Sunday.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

China Unicom Beijing Powers World's First Humanoid Robot Games with Smart 5G-A Network
China Unicom Beijing Powers World's First Humanoid Robot Games with Smart 5G-A Network

Associated Press

timean hour ago

  • Associated Press

China Unicom Beijing Powers World's First Humanoid Robot Games with Smart 5G-A Network

BEIJING, CHINA - Media OutReach Newswire - 18 August 2025 - At the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games which just kicked off, China Unicom Beijing provides full 5G-A network coverage outside and inside the event venue — Beijing National Speed Skating Oval. This cutting-edge network, characterized by its high uplink capacity, reliability, and security, is enabling over 500 robots from nearly 280 teams worldwide to compete at their best across athletic, performance, industrial, and healthcare contests. It is also significantly enhancing the experience for tens of thousands of spectators. Such robust 5G-A networks will transform society by propelling humanoid robots beyond competitions and into full-scale commercialization. China Unicom at the World's First Humanoid Robot Games The AI industry is developing rapidly. Multimodal and cross-device interactions are reshaping personal experiences, IoT connections are growing exponentially, and AI is now woven into the fabric of core production processes, completely redefining workflows. These embodied AI robots are a demanding AI application, requiring a specialized network that allows them to perceive their surroundings, make instant decisions, pinpoint their location precisely, and coordinate with other robots. With the games already in play, China Unicom Beijing is delivering reliable, extensive, and high-uplink connectivity for both robots and spectators outside and inside the arena. Outside, a 5G-A 3D network coordinating 1:1 high and mid bands boosts peak uplink and downlink user-perceived rates to 4 Gbps and 11.2 Gbps, respectively. Inside, LampSite offers 300 MHz bandwidth, achieving a peak network speed of 2.4 Gbps. 'Our 5G-A networks currently serve users, and we're upgrading them to support embodied AI as well,' said Qin Yang, Deputy General Manager of China Unicom Beijing. 'Our 5G-A network for this event reflects this progress. It dedicates a channel for spectators and a dynamically scalable one for robots, realizing seamless connectivity for both spectators and robots even during peak usage. In the robot sector, 5G-A will also be key to enabling low-latency remote control.' Samuel Chen, Vice President of Marketing for Huawei's Wireless Network Product Line, said, 'At the humanoid robot games, the network must support many robots, spectators, and live media streams. It needs to provide high uplink capacity, low latency, high reliability, and wide coverage.' Inside the venue, a 5G-A digital indoor system has been developed utilizing 300 MHz ultra-high-bandwidth spectrum. It delivers an uplink speed above 100 Mbps, allowing multiple 4K machine vision streams to be uploaded without frame loss. It also ensures air interface latency remains below 20 ms, so robots can respond to commands instantly. Outside the venue, a 5G-A 3D network coordinates 1:1 high and low bands to achieve downlink and uplink speeds of 10 Gbps and 4 Gbps, respectively. With this fast connectivity, 8K panoramic cameras merge footage live, media like CCTV upload UHD shallow-compressed signals in seconds, and crowds live stream and share videos without lag. As the world's first international sports event for humanoid robots, the games set the stage for a groundbreaking fusion of technology and athletics, signaling AI's expansion into sports at scale. As the event's exclusive global communications partner, China Unicom is dedicated to ensuring millisecond-level network response and zero downtime with its 5G-A, AI, and all-optical network expertise through collaboration with partners. Beyond the event, China Unicom aims to inject strong momentum into the robotics industry. Hashtag: #Huawei The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

China's inaugural 'Robot Olmypics' delivers impressive feats and disastrous falls
China's inaugural 'Robot Olmypics' delivers impressive feats and disastrous falls

Engadget

time13 hours ago

  • Engadget

China's inaugural 'Robot Olmypics' delivers impressive feats and disastrous falls

The first-ever World Humanoid Robot Games have come to a close with some new world records, but don't expect them to beat humans in a 100-meter dash any time soon. The three-day robotics event in Beijing, China that saw humanoid robots compete in everything from boxing to cleaning concluded this weekend. According to the World Humanoid Robot Games, more than 280 teams from 16 countries, including the US, Germany, Brazil and the host country, entered their robots into the event. A majority of the teams came from universities, but several teams came from established robotics companies like Unitree and Fournier Intelligence. Hundreds of robots competed in traditional sporting events like running, soccer and table tennis, along with events for more practical tasks, like cleaning or sorting medicine. Unitree snagged gold medals in four categories, including the 1,500-meter, 400-meter, 100-meter, and 4x100-meter dash events. According to Unitree, the fastest speed achieved by one of its robots during the event was 4.78 m/s, which is roughly 10 mph. In the 100-meter sprint, Unitree boasted a 33.71-second time, but that's nowhere near the world record holder Usain Bolt's time of 9.58 seconds, which was achieved in 2009. Instead, most teams took this event as an opportunity to showcase the abilities of their designs, while also stress-testing their robots in a competitive environment. We're still a long way from widespread adoption of these humanoid bots though, especially if they can't avoid running into each other.

Photos of Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games show how a human touch is still needed
Photos of Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games show how a human touch is still needed

San Francisco Chronicle​

timea day ago

  • San Francisco Chronicle​

Photos of Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games show how a human touch is still needed

BEIJING (AP) — Humanoid robots raced and punched their way through three days of a multi-sport competition at the World Humanoid Robot Games, wrapping up Sunday in Beijing. But they also toppled, crashed and collapsed, requiring humans' help and leading to questions about how far, after all, the robots can go on their own. The games featured more than 500 humanoids on 280 teams from 16 countries, including the United States, Germany and Japan, that competed in sports such as soccer, running and boxing at the 12,000-seater National Speed Skating Oval, built for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The event comes as China has stepped up efforts to develop humanoid robots powered by artificial intelligence. Robots were often seen close to their operators, whether they were controlled remotely, held, lifted, sorted or separated. Batteries needed replacing and limbs tuned. Although the robots showed off some impressive moves, some tripped and human intervention was never far from the field. One had to be carried out by two people, like an injured athlete, in a display of the limitations the machines are still facing. Their effect on the audience, however, was not unlike that of real athletes. Cheers erupted when a robot landed a punch, scored a goal, or won a game, showing that viewers were genuinely invested in the machines' endeavors.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store