Sprinting, fighting, winning: World Humanoid Robot Games in China
In Beijing, humanoid robots demonstrate their skills in running, martial arts and other disciplines. Amazement and smiles sometimes go hand in hand.
The robot from Unitree achieved gold in the 1500 meters at the games. This was not the company's only medal.
(Image: Unitree via X)
Three days, 16 participating countries, 280 teams: The "2025 World Humanoid Robot Games" kicked off today in Beijing. Humanoid robots will compete against each other in 21 disciplines. They compete in well-known sports, but also in industry-related applications. These include various running disciplines, soccer, martial arts and gymnastics, as well as competitions in material handling, sorting tasks and service skills in hotel scenarios.
The event is intended to showcase the latest developments in humanoid robots in the areas of intelligent decision-making and collaborative movement, according to a statement from the state media organization Xinhua.
According to the Reuters news agency, a good two thirds of the teams come from universities and a third from robotics companies. The teams come not only from Asia, but also from Germany, Japan and the USA, among others.
From Germany, for example, teams from Offenburg University of Applied Sciences and Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (HTWK) are taking part. "We come here to play and win. But we are also interested in research," Max Polter, a member of the HTWK robotics soccer team, told Reuters.
Videos by heise
Complex movements in martial arts
Longer recordings of the competitions can be seen on YouTube, for example on the Reuters or DWS News channels. They give an impression of how well the humanoid robots master their sporting challenges.
The videos also show that we should not expect too much in terms of graceful movements and sporty aesthetics in robotic sports competitions in 2025. Many of the models used still walk awkwardly and appear somewhat stiff in the back. The movements of the kickboxing robots, on the other hand, are quite elegant and their ability to move comes pretty close to that of a human (can be seen in the video from minute 45).
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The robots look a little clumsier in some soccer scenes. Anyone who has ever watched a robot soccer match will know that the humanoid competitors are nowhere near as good as their human counterparts. The games are also accompanied by curious falls, which make the audience laugh. For example, when a robot manages to sink the ball into the net after several attempts against the inactive goalkeeper, only to then make frantic movements to recover it from the goal (in the video from 43:30).
Running robot impresses over 1500 meters
The sprinting humanoids, on the other hand, could rival many a human runner. The Chinese robotics developer Unitree reports on X that it won the gold medal in the 1500-meter race with a time of 6 minutes and 34 seconds. Its average speed was 13.7 kilometers per hour. By way of comparison, a young male athlete needs an average speed of 13.5 km/h (albeit over a distance of 3,000 meters) to be awarded the gold sports badge in endurance running.
Unfortunately, the event's official website provides very little information about the competition, such as the participants or image and video material. At least the extensive rules and regulations are available to download in English. It shows, for example, how the organizers equalize the chances of winning in disciplines that allow both autonomous and remote-controlled robots. This applies to the running disciplines. An autonomously running humanoid receives a so-called weighting factor as a time advantage: the time run is multiplied by 0.8. Unitree indicates that their run to gold is the unweighted, i.e. real time.
(dgi)
