Will the future stars of athletics or boxing? This August 15 received the kick from the First World Humanoid Games (World Humanoid Robotics Games), a competition that takes place in Beijing until August 17. No less than 16 countries are represented on the occasion of this unique sporting event.
But on the ground, there is no athlete on the horizon. The peculiarity of the Whrg is that its participants are not human, but, as its name suggests, humanoids, that is, biped robots whose physicist resembles that of a human.
16 countries, 280 teams, 26 disciplines
And how to open games that are not for an opening ceremony? Beijing’s speed skating ring welcomed delegations around the world on August 14. The latter reached the parade in the middle of the dancers. We also had an overview of the few events that will take place there.
Almost 280 teams, each that represents a company or a university, will be in competition during this event. Many are from China, but others come from the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal or Brazil (however, there is no French team).
For this first edition, 26 various disciplines are in the program. We will see several athletics events (100m, 400m, 1500m, 4x100m relay, 100m with obstacle, long jump and height jump), boxing and gymnastics, as well as other more artistic demonstrations such as street dance, group choreographies or martial arts.
But in parallel with traditional sports, humanoid robots also compete in industrial logistics events, to move objects and order them, as well as domestic tests. Tasks to which this type of machine gradually takes to its path.
We will have to wait until the end of the event to find out which delegation will begin with most medals. Unitree, one of the Chinese robotics leaders, has already announced in X that he won gold during the 1500m. A performance achieved by its H1 robot in 6 minutes and 34 seconds. As a comparison, the human world record is in the hands of Moroccan Hicham El Guerinj in 3 minutes and 26 seconds.
Soccer, stellar sport of competition
But if a discipline attracts attention, it is football. This sport has been very popular in humanoid robotics, especially because it mobilizes a range of very versatile skills.
Among the necessary characteristics, the robot should know:
- Identifying the ball on the floor using the sensor, this also implies that the robot has to look for it when it is not in your field of vision.
- Go to the ball, a speed and balance test for two -way robots
- Know where the opponents are and know how to differentiate them from their teammates, a slightly brutal contact with another robot and this can cause a fall
- Coordinate with your teammates to make passes and also avoid matches
- Throw with the ball towards the goal, a movement that requires detecting the goal, placing itself in front of it, finding the balance on one foot, adjusting its strength and shooting on the right axis
In general, robot football competitions are a success among enthusiasts. We are thinking in particular in Robocup, an annual international competition that will be 30 years next year. She is up to several hundreds of teams in three robots against three. The 2025 edition took place in Brazil last June.
Europeans, coordination champions
Unlike Robocup, the Whrg will receive the games up to five humanoid players (two attackers, two defenders and one goalkeeper). Then it is necessary to establish a strategy and good coordination between the machines, to prevent a robot scrum from hurrying stupidly in the ball. A strategy for which Europeans could stand out, as explained in a video Fernando Ribeiro, Co -Whrg organizer.
By “medium size”, the man listens to the Robocup Middle Size League, one of the many robocup leagues. We will find in this competition robots on wheels, similar to aspirated robots, competing in a team of five. The last edition of this event was dominated by the Portuguese and German teams.
China, a new Humanoid Robotics Eld
Beyond being a sports competition, the event is above all a showcase for the advances of humanoid robotics in the world. China and the United States have already shown that they had ahead in terms of innovation in this area, so they are positioned in favorites. But the other teams should not be taken lightly, the Germans are notoriously formidable during the Robocup.
Recently, China has participated particularly in the radiation of robotics. Still on the sports side, we could see the robots to join the half -marathon of Beijing in April 2025. Beijing is also the source of several robots soccer games, open to the public, which took place in June in preparation for the games.
More recently, he organized the World Conference of AI in Shanghai at the end of July 2025, where visitors could meet a great diversity of humanoid robots with various skills. The country also welcomed the World Robotics Conference from August 8 to 12. Finally, Beijing has just opened the first shopping center dedicated to the sale of humanoid robots, both professionals and individuals.
But if China is interested in robotics, it is mainly to attend three sectors: boosting the industry, especially since relations with the United States deteriorated; Help at home, to deal with the phenomenon of population aging; Defense, as CNN shows, we have already seen Chinese robot dogs equipped with rifles.
Source: BFM TV
