Science & Tech

Robot crashes head first at first ever robot olympics

China hosts humanoid robot games as platform for global tech innovation
Xinhua TV - Raw / VideoElephant

No, it isn't the latest episode of Black Mirror – the world’s first robot Olympics just took place in China, and it was nothing short of a spectacle.

The three-day event, titled the 'World Humanoid Robot Games', brought together robots from 16 different countries to compete in a wide range of activities – from football, boxing, and tennis, to sprints. Beyond traditional sports, there were also more service-oriented challenges, including cleaning tasks and medicine sorting.

Naturally, it wasn’t without its share of robotic slip-ups.

One of the standout moments came during the 400-metre race, when a humanoid robot dramatically crashed head-first just shy of the finish line. The crowd erupted into cheers as assistants rushed in to lift the robot back onto its feet, allowing it to complete the race.

"At that moment, it didn't make a difference whether the contestant was a human or a robot," the official Discover Beijing X/Twitter account quipped.

That wasn’t the only mishap to draw attention. During a football match, four humanoid players collided in an uncoordinated pile-up.

Despite the stumbles, the competition had a clear purpose beyond entertainment.

“We come here to play and to win. But we are also interested in research,” Max Polter from Germany’s HTWK Robots football team 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.”

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