In a landmark display of robotic engineering and AI, the THU Robotics team from Tsinghua University claimed victory in China’s first fully autonomous humanoid robot football tournament. The championship match was held Saturday night in Beijing’s Yizhuang Development Zone and saw THU Robotics defeat China Agricultural University’s “Mountain Sea” team with a score of 5-3.
The Robo League tournament had strict adherence to full autonomy, no remote controls, and no human commands. Each team fielded three humanoid robots (plus one substitute), which relied entirely on onboard sensors and AI-driven decision-making to play a standard football match.
Organizers structured the matches into two 10-minute halves with a 5-minute break in between. During the games, the robots demonstrated impressive functionality: walking (with the occasional wobble), sprinting, kicking, chasing the ball, and making real-time strategic choices all autonomously. Optical cameras and sensors enabled the robots to detect the ball from as far as 20 meters (around 65 feet) with over 90% accuracy. They also recognized field lines, goals, teammates, and opposing players, navigating the game in real time.
“This is the first fully autonomous AI robot football match in China. It represents a combination of technological innovation and industrial application,” said Dou Jing, executive director of the tournament and deputy general manager of Shangyicheng (Beijing) Technology and Culture Group.
He emphasized that this kind of real-world application helps integrate robots into public life and highlights the possibilities of AI beyond research labs.
Despite their technological sophistication, the robots did face some limitations, particularly in dynamic obstacle avoidance. To account for this, tournament organizers allowed minor, non-malicious collisions to go unpunished, an adjustment needed given the complexity of real-time humanoid motion in chaotic environments.
The event was more than a competition; it also served as a glimpse into the future of robotics in sports and public engagement. Organizers have indicated plans to expand the range of humanoid robot sports, creating new intellectual properties and developing competitions in other fields such as athletics and gymnastics. One co-organizer likened the current level of robot soccer to the performance of five- or six-year-old children, primitive, but promising.
This tournament builds on previous milestones in China’s humanoid robotics journey. Notably, the country hosted the world’s first long-distance race between humans and robots, where the Tiangong Ultra robot completed a 21-kilometer half-marathon in two hours and forty minutes, well behind the top human time, but an achievement nonetheless considering the race banned wheeled robots and required human-like locomotion.
Looking ahead, Beijing is set to host the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Sports Games from August 15 to 17. The event will feature 11 sports competitions inspired by traditional human athletic events, including track and field, soccer, gymnastics, and synchronized dancing.
