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Title: China's inaugural 'Robot Olympics' delivers impressive feats and
disastrous falls

Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2025 22:14:50 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/ai/chinas-inaugural-...

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.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/ai/chinas-inaugural-...
impressive-feats-and-disastrous-falls-221450458.html?src=rss

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