30 humanoid robot teams get ready for World Humanoid Robot Games
SMRTR summary
Soccer-playing robots dive, dribble, and occasionally tumble across the field in Beijing as China prepares to host the World Humanoid Robot Games from August 15-17. The upcoming tournament follows June's RoboLeague, which marked the first time humanoid robots publicly competed in sports.
Thirty teams from countries including the United States, Brazil, Germany, and Portugal will participate in fully autonomous, five-a-side soccer matches. Many robots are already training, including the Shanghai Team from China Agricultural University.
"This is our first time participating in such a world-class competition in Beijing's Haidian District, so we're incredibly excited," said Luo Changsheng from Tsinghua University. "We're really looking forward to showcasing the new algorithms we've been researching."
These humanoid athletes use visual sensors to locate the ball and navigate the field. They can even recover after falling. Changsheng explained they program the robots through imitation learning: "We first let the robot watch human movements, and then let the robot go through thousands of iterations in a simulation environment."
While some dismiss it as a gimmick, experts believe soccer provides an excellent testing ground for advancing robotics and AI capabilities.
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to Interesting Engineering.
Read the original article