BEIJING (AP) – Although the Chinese men’s football team has not generated much excitement in recent years, humanoid Roboteams fans in Beijing have won more based on the AI ​​technology involved than any athletic competence shown.
Four teams of humanoid robots were confronted with completely autonomous 3-on-3 football matches that were completely powered by artificial intelligence on Saturday evening in the capital of China in what was promoted as a first in China and a preview for the upcoming World Humanoid Robot Games, which take place in Beijing.
According to the organizers, an important aspect of the competition was that all participating robots operated completely autonomously using AI-driven strategies without human intervention or supervision.
Equipped with advanced visual sensors, the robots could identify the ball and navigate through the field with agility
They are also designed to get up after falling. During the competition, however, several, however, still had to be worn off the field on stretchers by staff, which contributed to the realism of experience.
China makes efforts to develop AI-driven humanoid robots, with the help of sports matches such as marathons, boxing and football as a real-world proven land.
Cheng Hao, founder and CEO of Booster Robotics, the company that supplied the robot players, said that sports competitions offer the ideal test field for humanoid robots, which accelerates the development of both algorithms and integrated hardware softwares systems.
He also emphasized safety as a core care in the application of humanoid robots.
“In the future we can ensure that robots play football with people. That means we have to make sure that the robots are completely safe,” Cheng said. “For example, a robot and a person can play a match that does not matter, but real attacking and defensive interactions take place. That would help the public to build up trust and understand that robots are safe.”
Booster-Robotics offered the hardware for all four university teams, while the research team of each school developed and embedded their own algorithms for perception, decision-making, player formations and passing strategies-including variables such as speed, strength and direction, according to Cheng.
In the last match, the Thu Robotics of Tsinghua University beat the Mountain Sea Team of the China Agricultural University with a score of 5-3 to win the championship.
Mr Wu, a supporter of Tsinghua, celebrated their victory and also praised the competition.
“They (do) did really well,” he said. “But the Mountain Sea Team (from the Agricultural University) was also impressive. They brought many surprises.”
The China’s men have only appeared one world cup and have already been eliminated from the competition next year in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
