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Howard Liu

A tennis ball flew across the net. On the other side, a humanoid robot crouched, shuffled sideways in a series of quick steps, adjusted its position and swung its racquet to send the ball back.
The robot traded forehands and backhands with human players during singles and mixed-doubles demonstrations. At one point, while chasing a ball, it lost its balance and toppled backwards, drawing gasps from the crowd. It then rolled over, pushed itself back to its feet and resumed playing.
The robot was developed by Beijing-based Galbot and took part in what the company described as the world’s first human-robot tennis match.
The demonstration took place as the second World Humanoid Robot Games opened on Saturday night at Beijing’s National Speed Skating Oval, the speed-skating venue used for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The five-day event brings humanoid robots together to compete in sports ranging from running and football to table tennis and combat events.
This year’s games feature 51 events and 1,301 matches involving more than 600 teams and 2,056 humanoid robots, according to the organiser. New competitions include table tennis and kickboxing, while scenario-based events have been expanded to cover tasks in industrial production, hotels, homes and logistics.


Tennis presents a demanding challenge for humanoid robots. The tennis robot had to track an incoming ball, predict where it would land, move to the right position, and coordinate its torso and arms to return the shot, all within a matter of seconds.
The tennis court was not the only place where the robots were pushing sporting limits. A Tien Kung robot won the 400-metre large-robot race final on Sunday in 38.15 seconds, beating the human men’s world record of 43.03 seconds.
The second- and third-place robots also finished below 40 seconds, with times of 39.45 and 39.66 seconds, respectively. The improvement from last year was particularly striking. The winning time in the same event a year ago was 88.03 seconds.
On Saturday, a Tien Kung Ultra robot developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre clocked 9.39 seconds in the 100 metres, faster than Usain Bolt’s men’s world record of 9.58 seconds.
Still, the competition also produced plenty of reminders that these were robots learning to operate at their limits.
During one football match, a robot that was attempting to play the ball knocked over one of its own teammates. On the running track, robots that fell and could not continue were carried away by staff on stretchers or wheeled off in wheelchairs.
If AI computing is also put on the robot, battery consumption will increase further
David Li, Huawei Technologies
A year ago, robots placed relatively limited demands on communications networks because many were still operated by remote control, with competitions focused more on their mechanical agility, according to Yang Lifan, deputy general manager of China Unicom’s Beijing branch, which is providing network services for the games.
That began to change as competitions increasingly required robots to operate autonomously, Yang said, pointing to Beijing’s humanoid robot half-marathon in April as an early test. Unlike an indoor competition, where Wi-fi could sometimes be used, a road race over a wide area required continuous mobile-network coverage.
“Now the network has become an indispensable part of it, and its importance will only continue to grow,” Yang said.
At this year’s games, more robots are equipped with 5G-advanced modules that can send data collected by on-board sensors to an embodied-intelligence system for processing before receiving instructions back.
David Li, an executive at Huawei Technologies, said battery life remained a major constraint for humanoid robots, with much of their power already consumed by motors controlling movement.
“If AI computing is also put on the robot, battery consumption will increase further,” he said. Some advanced robot makers are therefore moving more AI processing to the cloud, allowing on-board batteries to focus on motion – a shift that makes network coverage increasingly important.


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Event highlights robots’ remaining weaknesses, including balance issues, limited autonomy and battery constraints, while underscoring need for faster networks


Event highlights robots’ remaining weaknesses, including balance issues, limited autonomy and battery constraints, while underscoring need for faster networks.


Chinese robots tackle tennis, smash track records at World Humanoid Robot Games

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Event highlights robots’ remaining weaknesses, including balance issues, limited autonomy and battery constraints, while underscoring need for faster networks

Event highlights robots’ remaining weaknesses, including balance issues, limited autonomy and battery constraints, while underscoring need for faster networks