Today, the world's first international boxing tournament among humanoid robots was held in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, organized by the China Media Corporation. The tournament program included exhibition matches and competitive fights. In the exhibition part, robots demonstrated their fighting skills in individual and group performances. In the competitive part, teams of operators controlled robots in real time via telecontrol. The organizers consider such events as a step in the development of humanoid robotics. Boxing matches help robots better understand and interact with the physical world, using data on human movements for training. The roboboxing tournament became not only a spectacular event, but also an experiment in collecting data on the technical capabilities of robots for the further development of the industry.
Sun Baoyan, a tester for the robot boxing tournament: "In preparation for the tournament, we worked with professional fighters, installing sensors that recorded their movements. The athletes performed boxing moves such as left hooks or uppercuts, and we tracked the trajectory of these movements and programmed them into the robots. Then, using artificial intelligence and reinforcement learning, the robots practiced these moves."
Roboboxing tournament coordinator Gao Yuan: "To fully utilize robots in real life, it is necessary to achieve good balance, smoothness and precision of their movements. I think boxing competitions are a good testing ground where developers can practice skills and further improve the motor capabilities of robots."