China hosts humanoid robot games featuring sprint records and comic failures
China staged the second World Humanoid Robot Games in late August, where robots beat the human sprint world record but struggled with everyday tasks. Experts say the athletic results don't reflect real progress in robots' practical abilities.
In late August, China hosted the second World Humanoid Robot Games (WHRG), bringing together more than 600 teams competing across 51 disciplines. Alongside familiar sporting events such as sprinting, high jump, wrestling, table tennis and football, the program included tasks like bed-making and shelving books.
The biggest attention went to the 100-meter sprint, where one robot completed the distance in 9.39 seconds, before another later improved it to 8.64 seconds — both times technically faster than Usain Bolt's world record, though the comparison isn't direct given the different conditions and technology involved. The competing robots are human-shaped and operate autonomously without remote control, although some disciplines allowed human involvement in decision-making.
Successes and failures
Stopping proved difficult for the sprinters, with several runs ending in robots crashing into walls at full speed. The obstacle race also caused major trouble, while in weightlifting, robots wobbled visibly under heavy loads, drawing sympathy from spectators. In high jump, a robot cleared 2.88 meters, while in kickboxing many strikes missed entirely. By contrast, mundane tasks like tidying a room, folding clothes or hammering a nail proved far harder for the robots than acrobatics.
Stanford University researcher Karen Liu explained that robots perform well in athletics because the task is simple and fixed — there's no need to adapt to a changing environment. Everyday tasks, however, require interacting with objects and making real-time decisions, which is far more difficult for robots.
Political backdrop
The UK's Guardian described the event as a display of China's technological strength, coming as the US this summer banned imports of Chinese humanoid robots, citing security concerns. Live broadcasts of the competition mostly showed successful moments, while failures — such as difficulty pouring water into a glass — received little coverage.
The event was structured much like a sports competition, complete with stands, judges, an opening ceremony and a mixed zone for reporters. Chen Tianqiao, a professor at Hangzhou Institute of Technology, told the BBC that the pace of development in the field is so fast that the world seems to change literally overnight.
