Chinese soccer team train for inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games
A T1 humanoid robot developed by Booster Robotics falls on a football pitch, during a practice in preparation for soccer competitions at the inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games, at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, China August 1, 2025. REUTERS/Florence Lo
BEIJING - On a soccer pitch in Beijing, "T1" is practising shots and taking up positions. T1 is no ordinary player, however, but a gold medal-winning humanoid robot training for the first World Humanoid Robot Games, taking place in Beijing from August 15.
T1 is part of a race to take the lead in humanoid robotics, as China looks to become more self-sufficient in advanced technologies.
The Games will bring together teams from more than 20 countries for events ranging from track and field to dance and martial arts, as well as practical applications such as industrial handling and medical services.
T1 and its two teammates, fielded by Tsinghua University's Hephaestus team, made history for China last month by winning gold in the "Humanoid, adult size" category of the 28-year-old RoboCup Humanoid League in Brazil.
"The Chinese government is actively promoting humanoid robot development," said Zhao Mingguo, Chief Scientist at Booster Robotics, maker of the T1. "To advance technology, the government is actively organising competitive events, and this sports games is one such experience."
While some may dismiss such events as gimmicks, industry experts and participants see them as a decisive spur to advance humanoid robots toward practical real-world deployment.
Although the Hephaestus team would hardly trouble even junior human opposition, Booster Robotics views soccer as a powerful test of perception, decision-making and control technologies that could later be applied in factories or homes.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Tech Reporting suspected advanced cyber attacks will provide a defence framework: Shanmugam
Business Singapore's US tariff rate stays at 10%, but the Republic is not out of the woods yet
Asia Asia-Pacific economies welcome new US tariff rates, but concerns over extent of full impact remain
Business ST explains: How Trump tariffs could affect Singapore SMEs, jobs and markets
Asia Indonesia's Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki erupts
Singapore Thundery showers expected on most days in first half of August
Singapore Synapxe chief executive, MND deputy secretary to become new perm secs on Sept 1
Singapore 5 women face capital charges after they were allegedly found with nearly 27kg of cocaine in S'pore
"Playing football is a testing and training ground for ... helping us refine our capabilities," Zhao said.
And just as in real life, moving on from the training ground is often a challenge.
Hephaestus is building on software developed for Brazil to improve the players' positioning skills.
But the performance of humanoid robots still depends to a great extent on environmental variables such as the surface and hardness of the ground and the gradient of any slopes, according to Hephaestus's Chen Penghui.
It wouldn't be the first time a soccer team had visited a new venue and bemoaned the state of the pitch. REUTERS
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
After almost losing Trump, Putin gets his ideal summit
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Few analysts believe the Russian leader will be content to stop the war based on a real estate negotiation alone. – In late July 2025, President Vladimir Putin of Russia was facing a stark reality: He was on the verge of losing President Donald Trump, the one Western leader possibly willing to help him get his way in Ukraine and achieve his long-held goal of rupturing the European security order. After months of trying to get Mr Putin to end the war, MrTrump had grown tired of ineffectual phone calls and talks and had begun issuing ultimatums. Even worse for Mr Putin, Mr Trump appeared to have patched up his relationship with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, despite an Oval Office blow-up earlier in 2025 , that delighted Moscow. It was not clear that Mr Trump would be able or willing to follow through on the threats he had made to put punishing tariffs on nations buying Russian oil , or what real impact such moves would have on Moscow. But Mr Trump's deadline for Mr Putin to end the war was swiftly approaching, presaging some sort of further rift between the White House and the Kremlin. So Mr Putin shifted tack ever so slightly. Despite previous refusals by Russian officials to negotiate over territory in the Russia-Ukraine war, the Russian leader, during a meeting at the Kremlin last week, left Mr Trump's special envoy, Mr Steve Witkoff, with the impression that Russia was now willing to engage in some deal-making on the question of land. 'We're going to get some back and we're going to get some switched,' Mr Trump said on Aug 8. 'There'll be some swopping of territories to the betterment of both.' By speaking a language Mr Trump understands – the language of real estate – Mr Putin secured something he had been seeking ever since January: A one-on-one meeting with the US leader, without Mr Zelensky present, to make his case and cut a deal. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Four men arrested in Bukit Timah believed to be linked to housebreaking syndicates Singapore Criminal trial of Hyflux founder Olivia Lum and five others starts Aug 11 Singapore Profile of Kpod user has shifted from hardcore drug users to young people: Experts Tech Former data analyst creates AI tutor that assesses students based on Singapore schools' criteria Opinion I used to be impatient. Then I became a granddad Life Pixar film-maker, We Bare Bears creator Daniel Chong on the lessons his S'porean parents taught him Opinion Recognising our imperfections is part of what makes Singapore whole Business The risks of using 'decoupling' to own two properties 'It has been a very good week for Putin,' said Dr Sam Greene, a professor of Russian politics at Kings College London. 'He has taken himself out of a position of significant vulnerability. He has manoeuvred this entire process into something that is more or less exactly what he needed it to be.' At the same time, tensions between Washington and Kyiv have reappeared. Mr Zelensky said on Aug 9 that the Ukrainian Constitution does not allow his government to negotiate away the country's land. Mr Trump initially told European officials that the meeting with Mr Putin would be followed by a three-way summit with both Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky. But the Kremlin quickly said no such promise had been made. The White House proceeded anyway. Few analysts believe the Russian leader will be content to stop the war based on a real estate negotiation alone. Mr Putin has made it clear that, among other things, he wants a formal promise that Ukraine will not enter Nato or any other Western military alliances, host Western troops on its territory or be allowed to build up a military that threatens Russia – making Ukraine perpetually vulnerable. 'The fundamental thing for Russia is domination,' Dr Greene said. Mr Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, said Mr Putin would come into the summit on Aug 15 in Alaska pursuing various scenarios. They include a favourable deal with Mr Trump that the US President successfully forces upon Ukraine or a favourable deal with Mr Trump that Mr Zelensky refuses, causing the United States to walk away from Ukraine, Mr Gabuev said. The third option, he noted, is that the Russian leader continues his current path for another 12 to 18 months, with the expectation that Ukraine will run out of soldiers faster than the Russian war economy runs out of steam. Mr Putin understands that Mr Trump is willing to offer things few other American leaders would ever consider, which could help Russia fracture Ukraine and divide the Western alliance. 'If you could get Trump to recognise Russia's claim to the lion's share of the territory that it has taken, understanding that the Ukrainians and the Europeans might not come along for the ride on that, you drive a long-term wedge between the US and Europe,' Dr Greene said. But despite wanting those things, Mr Putin will not stop the war for them, if getting them means agreeing to a sovereign Ukraine with a strong military, aligned with the West, that is able to make its own arms, Mr Gabuev said. 'Trump is a big opportunity for him,' Mr Gabuev said. 'I think that he understands that. But at the same time, he is not ready to pay the price of Ukraine slipping away forever.' Mr Stefan Meister, a Russia analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations, said the two leaders would come into the summit with different goals – Mr Trump's being to end the war and Mr Putin's being a strategic repositioning of Russia. 'For Putin, it's really about bigger goals,' Mr Meister added. 'It is about his legacy. It is about where Russia will stand after this war. It is much more fundamental. This creates a different willingness to pay costs.' And despite negotiations about his country's land, Mr Zelensky will not be in the room. 'For Ukraine, it is a disaster,' Mr Meister said. THE NEW YORK TIMES
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Pixar film-maker, We Bare Bears creator Daniel Chong on the lessons his S'porean parents taught him
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Daniel Chong is the writer and director of Pixar comedy-adventure Hoppers, which is expected to open in Singapore cinemas in March 2026. LOS ANGELES – In the upcoming Pixar adventure comedy Hoppers, a young scientist uses a new technology that lets her mind 'hop' into the body of a lifelike robotic beaver. Now able to communicate with real beavers and other animals, she discovers the surprising 'pond rules', or rules of life, that creatures live by. The animated tale features the voices of American actors Piper Curda as animal-loving protagonist Mabel and Jon Hamm as the mayor trying to destroy the animals' habitat. The film's writer-director Daniel Chong, whose parents migrated from Singapore to the United States before he was born, says the 'pond rules' taught to him by his Singaporean parents shaped his childhood in the US. Due to open in Singapore cinemas on March 5, 2026, Hoppers is the big-screen feature debut of Chong, a Chinese-American animator known for creating the beloved Cartoon Network series We Bare Bears (2015 to 2019) and its spin-off, We Bare Bears: The Movie (2020). Chong, 46, was born in North Dakota and grew up in southern California, where he still lives today. Speaking to The Straits Times over Zoom, he says his immigrant parents' Singaporean values 'almost certainly' rubbed off on him as a child. His father, who worked as an engineer before becoming a professor of business management, and his mother, a stay-at-home parent who later worked as a nurse, were both 'very strict with me and understandably so', Chong recalls. And like many first-generation Asian immigrants in the US, they did not understand their son's dream of becoming an artist. 'They didn't quite know what it meant to have an art career, although that was something I kind of wanted pretty young,' says the film-maker, who attended the prestigious California Institute of the Arts and worked as a storyboard artist on animated hits such as Inside Out (2015) and Cars 2 (2011). 'So, I would say, if they had 'pond rules', it was definitely, like, 'Focus on studies, make sure you play your piano and do all the prerequisites before you do the fun stuff like drawing.' 'And as long as I did that – as, I think, most Asian parents would demand – I was okay,' Chong says. The animator's Singapore connection has also inspired his work on at least one occasion. 'The one time we did a shout-out for Singapore was after I had visited there doing some press for We Bare Bears. They took me to see the Merlion, which I know is probably the most cliched thing in Singapore, but we actually put that in an episode,' he says of the animated sitcom, which follows three adoptive brothers – a panda, grizzly and polar bear – as they navigate human society. Praised for its understated humour and charm, the show – based on Chong's 2010 webcomic The Three Bare Bears – went on to win an Annie award for Best Animated Television Production for Children and pick up an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Short Form Animated Programme. Released in July 2025, the first trailer for Hoppers hints at another charming and unique story about animals, which Chong says he has always been drawn to. 'I've always loved animals. I love drawing them, and that was really my entry point to art. I had this encyclopaedia of animals as a kid, and every day, I would open it up and just copy pictures from it.' In Hoppers, he wants to tell 'a story about humans' relationship with animals – and what animals think about us, which is a big mystery'. Animal-loving scientist Mabel (left, voiced by Piper Curda) lets her mind "hop" into the body of a lifelike robotic beaver in the Pixar film Hoppers. PHOTO: PIXAR While developing the movie, he also learnt beavers are 'incredible animals – a keystone species that creates an ecosystem for a whole array of other animals'. In 2024, an article in entertainment magazine The Hollywood Reporter quoted an unnamed former Pixar artist who claimed the animation studio's bosses had forced the Hoppers team to 'downplay its planned message of environmentalism'. But Chong, who reportedly began working on Hoppers at the end of 2020, says 'that's not entirely true'. 'All movies here go through so many changes, and this movie just changed a lot over the time period that we made it, because it's hard to be articulate right away with how you want to frame it. 'But we were very aligned with the studio and with (parent company) Disney about what this movie was about, and they never questioned it,' he adds. 'I'm very happy with how the movie came out and nothing got toned down, nor were we ever told to.' Hoppers opens in Singapore cinemas on March 5, 2026.
Straits Times
3 hours ago
- Straits Times
China consumer inflation unchanged amid anti-price war campaign
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox BEIJING – China's consumer prices held steady in July as deflationary pressures eased on the back of a government pledge to contain excessive competition. The consumer price index was unchanged from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Aug 9. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a 0.1 per cent decline. Inflation ended a four-month falling streak in June, turning positive. Factory deflation persisted into a 34th month, with the producer price index falling 3.6 per cent, matching June's decline. Price wars are intensifying deflationary pressures in China, where consumer demand remains fragile. The government has launched campaign to curb the cutthroat competition among businesses that's eroded profits and driven down wages the world's second-biggest economy. China's top leadership vowed at its monthly gathering in late July to ramp up management of overcapacity in key industries but faces a challenge in reflating the economy, and more aggressive efforts to boost domestic demand may be necessary. The state's campaign also seems to have had little effect on people's perceptions, with the price expectation index, based on a central bank survey of households, in decline since late last year. A broad measure of prices across the economy, known as the GDP deflator, has declined for nine straight quarters, its longest streak in decades. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Four men arrested in Bukit Timah believed to be linked to housebreaking syndicates Singapore Criminal trial of Hyflux founder Olivia Lum and five others starts Aug 11 Singapore Profile of Kpod user has shifted from hardcore drug users to young people: Experts Tech Former data analyst creates AI tutor that assesses students based on Singapore schools' criteria Opinion Recognising our imperfections is part of what makes Singapore whole Opinion I used to be impatient. Then I became a granddad Business The risks of using 'decoupling' to own two properties Asia Manila struggles to keep a lasting hawker culture, casts eyes on how Asian nations lifted street food Resilient demand for Chinese goods overseas has helped the economy hold up surprisingly well in the face of US tariffs, but industrial profits are deteriorating as companies struggle to pass on rising costs to consumers, given weak spending power and poor sentiment. Fierce rivalry at home, fueled by excess industrial capacity, has driven exporters to slash prices to boost sales, drawing sharp criticism from abroad and deepening trade frictions. The Communist Party's decision-making Politburo, led by President Xi Jinping, listed the goal of addressing 'disorderly competition' among companies as one of its top priorities when it set the economic policy agenda for the rest of the year at its meeting last month. 'The big picture would remain the same – there is still a long way to go before the economy escapes deflationary pressures. Policymakers are recognszing that 'fixing disorderly competition' is key to addressing the roots of deflation – and more steps may follow,' said Bloomberg analyst Eric Zhu. Mr Xi issued a call in July to 'break involution,' using a term for a destructive state of intense competition sparked by excess capacity that forces people to overwork despite diminishing returns. The president has also questioned the need for local governments to crowd into the same emerging industries, such artificial intelligence and vehicles powered by alternative-energy sources. BLOOMBERG
