(Adnkronos) – Two ‘robot boxers’ in the ring. Gloves and helmets, they faced off in Hangzhou. From China, the images broadcast by the Asian giant’s media went around the world. The spotlight was on a match that saw two humanoid robots developed by Unitree Robotics, as part of the China Media Group World Robot Competition, between demonstrations and ‘real’ matches. And it all seemed very similar to the matches between ‘real’ champions, with no holds barred. Only, in ‘miniature’. With the referee, the only human in the square.
The Global Times, a Chinese nationalist tabloid, reported on the world’s “first” “combat sport” competition featuring “humanoid robots” and a “historic moment” with the “gradual integration of artificial intelligence” into these disciplines. China Media Group stressed that “all humanoid battlebots are equipped with domestically developed technologies”. And the organizers explained how the competition includes demonstrations and matches, with humanoid robots engaged in attack moves and robots controlled by human beings facing off in the ring.
Four teams of human operators controlled the ‘robot boxers’, whose creators – in the tabloid’s columns – claim their skills with jabs and hooks, up to getting back up from a knockout. The G1 robots, considered by Unitree to be its flagship, are 1 meter and 32 centimeters ‘tall’ and, explains the Global Times, weigh 35 kilograms.
