Robots race, play football, crash and collapse at China’s ‘robot Olympics’

> China kicked off the three-day long World Humanoid Robot Games on Friday, looking to showcase its **advances in artificial intelligence and robotics** with 280 teams from **16 countries.**

> Robots competed in sports such as track and field, and table tennis, as well as tackled robot-specific challenges from sorting medicines and handling materials to cleaning services.

> “You can test a lot of interesting new and exciting approaches in this contest. If we try something and it doesn’t work, we lose the game. That’s sad but it is better than investing a lot of money into a product which failed.”

> Football matches help train robots’ coordination abilities, which could **prove useful for assembly line operations** requiring collaboration between multiple units.

> China is investing billions of dollars in humanoids and robotics as the country **grapples with an aging population.**

> It has staged a series of high-profile robotics events in recent months, including what it called the world’s first humanoid robot marathon in Beijing, a robot conference and the **opening of retail stores dedicated to humanoid robots.**