Robots Stumble As China Hosts First Humanoid Olympics
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The world’s first humanoid robot Olympics opened in Beijing this week, featuring more than 500 androids from 16 nations competing in sports and technical challenges, though early events were marked by crashes, falls, and stumbles.
The three–day World Humanoid Robot Games brought together 192 university teams and 88 private enterprises.
Robots competed in football, athletics, boxing, table tennis, and specialized tasks such as sorting medicines and handling materials.
In five–aside football, 10 robots the size of young children shuffled across the pitch, often colliding or falling together in a heap.
In athletics, one machine veered into a human operator, knocking him to the ground.
Germany’s HTWK Robots football team member Max Polter said the competition was about more than winning.
“We come here to play and to win. But we are also interested in research,” he said.
“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.”
Unitree’s humanoids dominated the 1,500–metre race, with the fastest finishing in 6:29:37.
The time, though far behind the human world record of 3:26:00, highlighted progress in robotics.
The Beijing municipal government helped organize the games, underscoring China’s push to lead in AI and automation as it faces an ageing population and slower growth.
Authorities have directed more than $20 billion in subsidies to the robotics sector in the past year and are preparing a one trillion yuan ($137 billion) fund for startups.
China has staged other robotics events, including a humanoid marathon and a robot conference, though some competitions faced criticism after machines malfunctioned.
Despite setbacks, analysts and participants see such contests as vital for advancing humanoid robots.
Morgan Stanley noted strong public turnout at recent robotics events, calling it evidence of widespread embrace of “embodied intelligence.”
“We believe this widespread interest could be instrumental for China’s continued leadership in the humanoid race, providing the necessary talent, resources, and customers to boost industry development and long–term adoption,” analysts wrote.
Booster Robotics, which supplied humanoids to Tsinghua University’s football team, said sport is a proving ground for future applications.
“Playing football is a testing and training ground for helping us refine our capabilities,” said Zhao Mingguo, Chief Scientist at Booster Robotics.
