China's robots fail early market test

The second World Humanoid Robot games, dubbed the "Robot Olympics", ended on August 26. The five-day event held in Beijing brought together more than 2,000 robots from 666 teams, most of them Chinese, and featured 51 disciplines including sports contests as well as task-based challenges in simulated factories, restaurants, offices and emergency settings.

During the games, a humanoid robot developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre ran 100 metres in 8.64 seconds, breaking Jamaican Usain Bolt's human world-record time.

One source of unease is technology: China's robots still lack the intelligence, reliability or dexterity to complete simple human tasks. This week's high-profile World Humanoid Robot Games held in Beijing, dubbed the Robot Olympics, revealed many shortcomings. The Tiangon Ultra winning droid, for example, shattered Usain Bolt's 100-metre-sprint human record only to plough into a barrier because it lacked real-world braking abilities; some bots caught on fire while almost all had to be stretchered off, according to the AP. That's hardly a sign of confidence that they can be deployed into real-world settings.