Robots Show Off Combat Skills In First Humanoid Kickboxing Tournament
Hangzhou, China just hosted a tech spectacle that sounds straight out of a sci-fi movie: the first-ever humanoid robot fighting tournament. Forget your average boxing match ladies and gentlemen; we're talking about metal titans duking it out, exchanging punches, and knocking each other out. The only things missing are blood, flying sweat, and, well, human fighters.
Over the weekend, folks in the eastern city of Hangzhou, China got to witness the inaugural humanoid kickboxing tournament. The stars of this futuristic showdown were Unitree robots, creations of the innovative Unitree Robotics. The robots aren't your regular old Rosies (from "The Jetsons") either; these sleek, bipedal bots showed off some serious combat prowess, landing punches and kicks that could make Jean-Claude Van Damme wince (just a little).
Now, the robots were not fully automated. The fighters were remotely controlled by a group of operators outside of the ring. If this concept takes off though, you can bet that esports will snap this up like a super high-stakes video game.
The Unitree robots used in the fight are $16k Unitree G1s. Each unit stands roughly at 4.4 feet tall (1.32 meters) and tips the scales at 77 pounds (35 kilograms), perfect for the featherweight division. The G1 is capable of being controlled through motion sensors, motion control, and even voice commands. Furthermore, Unitree also touts that each robot is easily adaptable, so in this case, it can learn combat skills and evolve its moves with every fight. So yeah, we hope there are no plans to militarize these things just yet—imagine spotting an armorized G1 charging at you at 60 mph with weapons blazing.
For now however, Unitree is busy adapting the G1 for different sporting events. In April, the robot was seen participating in the world's first robot half-marathon in Beijing. The G1 may be a pretty adept kickboxer, but running? Not so much. Much to everyone's surprise, the machine took a tumble right at the starting line.
Fun and games aside, this "tournament" proves that while robotics have come a long way, it also shows that the tech, particularly in sports and potentially other high-intensity activities, has some maturing to do. Each G1 is slow, clunky, and falls a lot (not from knockouts either). Still, what publicity stunt will Unitree or other Chinese robotics companies think of next? Humanoid gymnastics? Or maybe swimming (better hope their IP-rating is up to snuff)?
