Robots played football in China, some left the field on stretchers (video)

The vision of the near future is no longer fiction — it’s becoming reality. For the first time, China hosted a football tournament between fully autonomous, full-sized humanoid robots. The competition, named “Robo League,” was organized in a format similar to traditional football, with one key difference — the players were metal people.

Most interestingly, these androids acted completely independently, making decisions based only on artificial intelligence. They moved freely on the field, analyzed the situation, and tried to control the ball. It was noted that these robots, equipped with a fully automated system, were able to detect the ball from a distance of up to 20 meters with over 90 percent accuracy.

Matches consisted of two 10-minute halves and were played in a 3v3 format. Robots often faced obstacles, fell down, and some even had to be taken off the field on stretchers due to technical malfunctions. Despite this, the winning team consisted of students from Tsinghua University, according to Interesting Engineering.

One of the event organizers emphasized that just a year ago, the robots could barely walk during a game and would constantly break down when falling. Now, they can move at a speed of 1 meter per second without any human assistance for safety.

China plans to host such events regularly. An even larger competition — the World Humanoid Robot Games — is scheduled for August this year. In addition to football, matches in other sports will also take place.

It’s worth noting that in May, the city of Hangzhou hosted the world’s first boxing tournament among humanoid robots. According to spectators, the event resembled scenes from the movie “Real Steel,” in which giant robots controlled by humans fight in the ring.

Additionally, China earlier this year hosted the world’s first half-marathon with both human and robot participants. A total of 12,000 people and over 20 androids took part, though not all of them reached the finish line.

Final thought: China is becoming not only a leader in artificial intelligence, but also one of the foremost countries applying it in real-life scenarios. When robots play football on the field and people watch them with excitement — the future has already begun. Read 'Zamin' on Telegram!