The Unitree H1 humanoid robot won four foot races at the inaugural robot games. | Credit: Unitree Robotics
The Chinese robotics community hosted the World Humanoid Robot Games 2025 at the National Speed Skating Oval last week. The Ice Ribbon is located on Beijing’s Olympic Green. It was the main venue for speed-skating competitions during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
In the games, 280 teams from 16 countries participated in 487 competitions in 26 events, including competitive matches, exhibition matches, scenario matches, and preliminary events. The robots wowed the live audience, while social media videos enabled viewers from around the world to see the competitions.
Manually operated humanoid robots in a mixed martial arts competition. | Credit: World Humanoid Robot Games
The overall event was reminiscent of the early DARPA challenges, with the exception that many of the robots on display were from commercial companies and are in the process of being productized.
The running and boxing events attracted the most attention on social media, with a majority of the comments related to the observation that many of the “competitors” were not autonomous, but rather teleoperated by a robot wrangler via a joystick or tablet. The competition would likely have been sparser if only autonomous systems were allowed to enter.
Unitree‘s H1 humanoid robot won the first gold medal in the 1,500 m race with a time of 6:34.40, setting a new world record. Later in the day, Unitree claimed its second gold in the 400 m final with a time of 1:28.03, completing a clean sweep of all Day 1 race events. The Unitree H1 robots were manually operated during these competitions.
However, in the 100 m sprint finals, an autonomous humanoid, which physically finished third, was declared the winner due to the rule that autonomously controlled robots were given a 0.8 time-coefficient advantage.
In addition to the martial arts, soccer, and running/agility demonstrations, the organizing committee also presented a “Warehouse Center Scenario – Mixed Material Sorting Skills Competition.” This event featured robots that used embodied AI, perception, and problem-solving to test the robots in the applications that they might fulfill in the real world.
The teams had months to prepare for the competition, and the competition manual defined the various obstacles that would be present. | Credit: World Humanoid Robot Games
Robot games to go on
One of the outcomes from the event was the establishment of the World Humanoid Robot Sports Federation, a governing body that will oversee future competitions for humanoids. If you are interested in participating in the next event, check out the organizing committee’s webpage for the latest competition announcement and rules.
Learn more about humanoids at RoboBusiness
Don’t miss RoboBusiness 2025 on Oct. 15 and 16 in Santa Clara, Calif. The conference includes sessions focused on humanoid robot development and deployment, including a keynote panel on “Lessons Learned from First Humanoid Deployments.” Speakers will include Katlyn Lewicke, head of global automation strategy and intel at GXO Logistics, and Jim Fan, director of AI and a distinguished scientist at NVIDIA.
The humanoid track at RoboBusiness will also include sessions on:
- “Humanoids for Real Applications: Mastering Safety and Performance,” with Nikolai Ensslen, CEO of Synapticon
- “Advancements in Humanoid Actuation,” with Jordan Schaeffler, strategic business development engineer at Novanta
- “Integrating Behavioral Science into Humanoid Design,” with Ram Devarajulu, vice president and head of robotics for North America at Cambridge Consultants
RoboBusiness, the premiere event for developers and suppliers of commercial robots, will also have tracks on physical AI, enabling technologies, and design and development best practices. It will feature more than 60 speakers, a startup workshop, the annual Pitchfire competition, and numerous networking opportunities.
Over 100 exhibitors on the show floor will showcase their latest enabling technologies, products, and services. Registration is now open for RoboBusiness 2025.
