Robot Olympics kick off with football and martial arts

Telegraph

14 hours ago

The first robot Olympics has kicked off in China on Friday and brought together humanoid machines from 280 teams across 16 countries, including the US, Japan and Germany.
Officially known as the World Humanoid Robot Games, the three-day event is being held in Beijing and will include a variety of sporting activities, including track and field and football, as well as 'scenario events', such as sorting medicine and handling cleaning materials.
According to the Beijing municipal government, there will also be 'peripheral events', which will include 'freestyle combat, slam dunk, and more'.
During the opening ceremony held on Thursday evening, more than 100 of the participating teams gathered at Beijing's National Speed Skating Oval to take part in 'exciting robot street dance and opera performances'.
The first day saw robots compete in short and middle distance track competitions, football matches and martial arts and dance performances.
For the performances, the robots – many of which are about half the size of an adult human – were joined by children who danced alongside the humanoids.
The event comes as China has been making a push for robotics, investing billions of dollars into the technology, both in the civilian space as well as defence, from robotic butlers and life size dolls to robotic dogs that can be used on the battlefield to transport weapons and detect gas leaks or collapsed tunnels.
Max Polter, one of the members of Germany's HTWK Robots football team, said that part of the reason for taking part in the games was to further research into the robots.
'You can test a lot of interesting, new and exciting approaches in this contest. If we try something and it doesn't work, we lose the game. That's sad, but it is better than investing a lot of money into a product which failed,' said Mr Porter.
However, despite the novelty of the competition, the large stadium in Beijing was only partially full, with videos of events showing rows of empty seats.
The tickets for the games are not cheap, ranging from 128 to 580 yuan (£13.15 to £60).
Despite the novelty, the sporting events lacked some of the fast-paced excitement that comes when humans compete.
During the football games, most times when one of the robots was knocked down, a minder had to run out on the field and either drag it off the pitch or set it back upright manually.
At one point, four robots crashed into each other during a game and fell into a pile on the ground.
Other incidents more closely resembled real human experiences. During the 1500-metre track event, a robot collapsed suddenly while running at full speed, drawing gasps from those in the crowd.
Over the next two days, the robots will take part in an obstacle race, high jump, gymnastics, and freestyle combat.
Interspersed around the sporting events are the scenario events, which showcase 'real world applications' and 'the capabilities and potential' of the robots, according to the Beijing government.