Reuters
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China kicked off the three-day lengthy World Humanoid Robot Games on Friday, seeking to showcase its advances in synthetic intelligence and robotics with 280 groups from 16 nations.
Robots competed in sports activities corresponding to monitor and subject, and desk tennis, in addition to tackled robot-specific challenges from sorting medicines and dealing with supplies to cleansing companies.
Teams got here from nations together with the United States, Germany and Brazil, with 192 representing universities and 88 from non-public enterprises corresponding to China’s Unitree and Fourier Intelligence. Competing groups used robots from Chinese producers corresponding to Booster Robotics.
“We come here to play and to win. But we are also interested in research,” mentioned Max Polter, a member of HTWK Robots soccer staff from Germany, affiliated with Leipzig University of Applied Sciences.
“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.”
At the robotic video games in Beijing, which charged 128 to 580 yuan ($17.83-$80.77) for tickets, humanoids crashed into one another and toppled over repeatedly throughout soccer matches, whereas others collapsed mid-sprint throughout operating occasions.
During one soccer match, 4 robots crashed into one another and fell in a tangled heap. In the 1500-meter operating occasion, one robotic all of a sudden collapsed whereas operating at full velocity, drawing gasps and cheers from spectators.
Despite frequent tumbles requiring human help to assist robots stand, many managed to proper themselves independently, incomes applause from audiences.
Organizers mentioned the video games present worthwhile information assortment alternatives for creating robots for sensible purposes corresponding to manufacturing unit work.
Football matches assist practice robots’ coordination skills, which might show helpful for meeting line operations requiring collaboration between a number of models, commentators mentioned.
China is investing billions of {dollars} in humanoids and robotics because the nation grapples with an ageing inhabitants and rising competitors with the U.S. over superior applied sciences.
It has staged a collection of high-profile robotics occasions in latest months, together with what it known as the world’s first humanoid robotic marathon in Beijing, a robotic convention and the opening of retail shops devoted to humanoid robots.
Morgan Stanley analysts in a report final week famous a surge in attendance to a latest robotic convention from most people in comparison with earlier years, saying this confirmed “how China, not just top government officials, has embraced the concept of embodied intelligence.”