China's inaugural 'Robot Olympics' delivers impressive feats and disastrous falls

The first-ever World Humanoid Robot Games have come to a close with some new world records, but don't expect them to beat humans in a 100-meter dash any time soon. The three-day robotics event in Beijing, China that saw humanoid robots compete in everything from boxing to cleaning concluded this weekend. According to the World Humanoid Robot Games, more than 280 teams from 16 countries, including the US, Germany, Brazil and the host country, entered their robots into the event.

A majority of the teams came from universities, but several teams came from established robotics companies like Unitree and Fournier Intelligence. Hundreds of robots competed in traditional sporting events like running, soccer and table tennis, along with events for more practical tasks, like cleaning or sorting medicine. Unitree snagged gold medals in four categories, including the 1,500-meter, 400-meter, 100-meter, and 4x100-meter dash events. According to Unitree, the fastest speed achieved by one of its robots during the event was 4.78 m/s, which is roughly 10 mph.

In the 100-meter sprint, Unitree boasted a 33.71-second time, but that's nowhere near the world record holder Usain Bolt's time of 9.58 seconds, which was achieved in 2009. Instead, most teams took this event as an opportunity to showcase the abilities of their designs, while also stress-testing their robots in a competitive environment. We're still a long way from widespread adoption of these humanoid bots though, especially if they can't avoid running into each other.