The spotlight of the National Speed Skating Oval of Beijing, China, have focused on more than 500 humanoid robots. From the 14 to 17 August Last the Arena, built for the 2022 Winter Olympics and capable of hosting up to 12,000 people, turned into the theater of the first great sports experiment dedicated to humanoids. It was the World Humanoid Robot Gamescompetition that brought together 280 teams from 16 countriessuch as the United States, Germany and Japan up to the university and even school teams of China herself. A format declaredly inspired by the Olympic Gamescomplete with opening ceremony, artistic performances and 26 disciplines between athletic tests and practical challenges. The participants competed not only in traditional sports such as race, football and kickboxing, but also in tasks more related to automation, such as the reorganization of medicines.
What at first glance might seem only a curious technological fair show can actually be read as a new and important piece of the Chinese strategy to establish itself as a global leader in robotics and artificial intelligence. In the last few months Beijing has in fact accelerated public and private investments in this sector, arriving to allocate billions for the production of chips, the development of algorithms and the construction of technological hubs. Position the humanoids at the center of innovation policies, also taking advantage of media events of great appeal to consolidate an imaginary in which China is the nation of reference in this area.
The first “Olympics” for Robot in China: how it went
For those who have witnessed live or streaming the “Olympics” for robot, The show was as fascinating as it is comic. After a sort of opening ceremony, the bipedo robots, that is, those designed to walk on two legs like us, have evident how complex it is still to replicate the agility and balance of the human body.
During the 1,500 meters racefor example, some humanoids have not even managed to leave the starting line, others have lost pieces – such as heads or limbs – along the way. To win was H1created by the UNIREE Chinese company, with a time of 6 minutes and 29 seconds: a remarkable result if related to engineering difficulties, but still very far from the human record of just over 3 minutes. To arrive second in this races was X-Humanoidwhich won the first half marathon of humanoid robots, which were always held in China last April.
Also the combat disciplines They offered memorable moments. The robots of kickboxing They were able to launch kicks and punches, but a balance error was enough to collapse ruinously to the ground. In the soccer The scenes were not very different: attackers who stumbled upon minimal contact and goalkeepers who, after a clumsy attempt by parade, collapsed without getting up more. Even artistic performances, such as the dance or the musicthey were characterized by sudden falls, with human operators forced to run on stage to remove damaged or blocked robots.
Despite this, the organizers have underlined how the true value of the competition is not only in the intrinsic sports result, but in the possibility of experimenting with engineering solutions in a realistic context.
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The reactions of the human public
Let’s move on to public reactions which have been somewhat varied. Many young spectators, like the eighteen year old Chen Ruiyuanthey told the enthusiasm in seeing obvious progress compared to past years, while recognizing that the way to get to robot with real Athletic or operational capacity is still long. “Come here allows me to cultivate my passion for this fieldThe young man said, adding:
My favorite sport is boxing because … it requires a lot of agility and I can really see how much the robots have improved compared to the past.
International experts, such as the engineer Jonathan Aitken of the University of Sheffield, they reiterated that we are far from a scenario in which humanoids can move and work in complex environments without constant supervision. Aitken said:
The current state of artificial intelligence is far from allowing humanoids to operate in unstressed environments.
Kyle Chana sociologist from the University of Princeton, he explained why China keeps us so much to organize events for robots of such a scope and said:
If there is a sector in which (Beijing) believes that China is at the forefront or can position itself as a world leader, then it really wants to attract attention to that sector.
