Collisions and collapses: how humanoids fared in their first football match
The first fully autonomous three-on-three humanoid football match, powered entirely by artificial intelligence, took place in Beijing as a preview for the upcoming World Humanoid Robot Games.
During the event, some robots collapsed and had to be stretchered off by humans, despite being designed to self-right, while others struggled with kicking and experienced slow-motion collisions.
China is using sports competitions, including football, boxing, and marathons, to accelerate the development of AI-powered humanoid robots.
Cheng Hao, CEO of Booster Robotics, stated that these sports events are ideal for testing and refining both algorithms and integrated hardware-software systems, emphasising the importance of safety for future human interaction.
Tsinghua University's THU Robotics team secured the championship, defeating China Agricultural University's Mountain Sea team with a final score of 5-3.
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