This Sunday, the Chinese city of Hangzhou, in Zhejiang province, was the scene of a rather unusual sporting event: for the first time, two robots faced off in a unique kickboxing match.
This match was organized by the Chinese company Unitree, which is quickly establishing itself among the world leaders in the development of humanoid robots. It distinguished itself in particular by demonstrating the ability of its various robots to withstand violent blows and even practice kung fu. But as impressive as they were, these demonstrations had always been carried out in controlled environments such as laboratories. Pitting two machines against each other in a real-time battle, on the other hand, represents a significantly more challenging engineering challenge.
To demonstrate its progress in this area, Unitree chose to pit several of its G1 robots, featherweights of around 35 kg and 1.32 m tall against each other. At first glance, the result was not particularly impressive; unsurprisingly, these machines remain relatively clumsy and not perfectly coordinated in their movements. The exchanges of blows resembled a late-night altercation between two extremely drunk barflies more than a real fight between two top-level boxers.
A particularly complex exercise
But despite appearances, these few duels still represented a real technological feat. The main challenge is allowing the cyber-fighters to perform a whole range of complex, non-preprogrammed movements, calculated in real time based on the position and posture of the two opponents. This involves exploiting the information provided by different types of sensors to calculate movements using a method called inverse kinematics, while attempting to model the opponent's movements while taking into account latency. They must also be able to do so without compromising their own balance, otherwise a simple flick could send them biting the dust.
In short, these fights require solving complex equations whose parameters are constantly evolving. And when you factor in the difficulty of this exercise, the demonstrations immediately become much more impressive. The simple fact that the robots have shown themselves capable of chaining together relatively precise jabs, hooks, and even kicks, all while moving and without falling apart at the slightest contact, is already admirable.
Towards a rise in robotic sports?
And this is probably only the beginning. In recent years, robotics as a whole has truly been taking a step forward, with a host of software and hardware innovations, each more impressive than the last, promising to propel this discipline into a new dimension. This will obviously benefit the industry, and perhaps even individuals thanks to the efforts of companies like Tesla, which are working on domestic androids.
But at the same time, these advances are also starting to foster the emergence of some rather fascinating new technical and sporting disciplines. Who knows, perhaps in a few years, robotic sports will start to move into the mainstream, and we could see robotic equivalents of prestigious competitions like the Champions League!
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