By Wu Siya

BEIJING, Aug 15 (China Economic Net)– "Go! Go! Come on!" The cheering coming from the China National Speed Skating Oval, the Ice Ribbon, is not for human athletes. Today, the fierce competition on the field is a group of steel players driven by data and programs.

The inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games (WHRG), as the world's first multi-sport competition for humanoid robots, is being held in Beijing from August 14 to 17, bringing together 280 teams from 16 countries across five continents.

Over 500 humanoid robots will compete in 26 disciplines and 538 events, the organizing committee announced.

The international teams hail from countries including but not limited Germany, Australia, the US, the UAE, Pakistan, Malaysia and Brazil. Altogether, the event will showcase humanoid robots from 127 brands.

Five-a-side football match at WHRG [Photo/Wu Siya]

At one of the first events, five-aside football, 10 robots the size of seven-year-olds shuffled around the pitch, often getting stuck in a scrum or falling over en masse.

However, in a 1500-metre race, domestic champion Unitree's humanoids H1 stomped along the track at an impressive clip, easily outpacing their rivals.

The fastest robot the reporter witnessed finished in 6:34.40, a far cry from the human men's world record of 3:26:00. But this speed has allowed it to easily defeat all opponents, winning the first gold medal in the WHRG.

Following closely behind was the Tiangong robot from the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, which finished second with a time of 6:55. It is worth mentioning that it was the only player in the competition to run autonomously throughout the entire race without any remote control.

Of course, this is just the beginning.

Robot athletes compete fiercely in a long-distance race [Photo/Wu Siya]

"I believe in the next 10 years or so, their speed and dexterity will be basically at the same level as humans," an excited spectator told China Economic Net.

The RoboCup Asia-Pacific (RCAP) Beijing Masters is currently considered the world's premier humanoid robot football competition and is generating great expectations. Ten robots will compete on the same field without human input, marking a major breakthrough in swarm intelligence and collaborative decision-making technologies. It will also be the first time that a humanoid robot football match will be staged at an Olympic venue.

The International Federation of Robotics in a paper wrote that Beijing has put humanoids in the centre of the national strategy. China also plans to fund 1 trillion yuan (USD 214 billion) to support AI and robotics startups.