At a football stadium in Beijing, the capital of China, ‘T1’ is practicing shots. ‘T1’ is not an ordinary player but a humanoid robot that won a gold medal. Last month, the robot ‘Ni1’ and his teammates, led by the Hephaestus team from Tsinghua University, achieved a historic victory for China by winning the gold medal in the ‘Adult-Size Humanoid’ category at the RoboCup held in Brazil. Zhao Mingguo, chief scientist at Boster Robotics, the manufacturer of the ‘T1’ robot, stated: ‘The Chinese government is actively promoting the development of humanoid robots. To advance this technology, the government actively organizes competitive events, and these sports are one of these experiments.’ While some may dismiss such events as mere showcases, industry experts and participants see them as a crucial incentive to push humanoid robots towards practical use in the real world. Zhao said, ‘Playing football serves as a test and training… to help us improve our capabilities.’ According to Reuters, Hephaestus relies on a program developed specifically for the Brazil championship to improve players’ positioning skills. However, the performance of humanoid robots still largely depends on environmental variables such as the ground’s surface, its hardness, and the slope of any inclines, according to Chen Binghui from the Hephaestus Center.
