CRASH, TRAMPLE, REPEAT: Robots carried off on stretchers at ROBO football match in China

China recently kicked off its first robot football tournament, in which three robots were assigned to each side. While AI might be after our jobs, sportspeople don't seem to be at risk of being replaced at all. Two of the six robots underwent so much strain at the tournament that they had to be carried off on stretchers. The robots were controlled by AI and just could not figure out, to save their lives, what they had to do. They barely moved, crashed into each other and fell over repeatedly. The ball was barely touched during the entire match. However, the man whose company provided the robots believes they will improve in the coming years, Global Times reported.

Cheng Hao, founder of Booster Robotics, said that the robots have the skills of five to sis year old children. In fact, he believes that the robots could one day play against humans. However, with the amount of hitting and bumping and falls the robots experienced, the company would have to make them almost experts at the game before humans can take the field against them. Otherwise, it will be a carnage out there on the football field.

China robot football tournament

The ROBO league football tournament was organised in Beijing as a test game ahead of China's upcoming 2025 World Humanoid Games. Four teams of engineers participated and built AI strategies to make the robots shoot, pass and do other football-related acts. The tournament was won by THU Robotics from Tsinghua University, who defeated the Mountain Sea from China Agricultural University 5-3.

The problem with the robots was "dynamic obstacle avoidance", which meant that despite only moving one metre per second, they could not figure out that the other player was also moving and crashed into them. Seeing what was happening on the field, the rules had to be altered to allow more "non-malicious collisions". The robots kept falling down. Sometimes they got back up on their own, while at other times people had to help them stand back up. At one point, two robots started to trample a fallen robot, and the referee had to physically hold them back.

Sports and robots

Sports have become a testbed for robots in China. Recently, a kickboxing match was organised between robots developed by Unitree Robotics as part of the China Media Group World Robot Competition. In another tournament, 21 robots competed in the Yizhuang half marathon alongside thousands of humans.