The Olympics are one of those exciting events that bring the whole world together to compete and see who is the best at a variety of different sporting events. It is a great way to push the human body to its limits and beyond, while having a lot of fun in the process.

As the technology for robots continues to rapidly advance, China has decided that it would be a good idea to start making robots compete against each other in a similar type of competition. In addition to being a fun event for engineers and spectators alike, it will also help to push the robots to their limits, so that designers can make improvements.

So, with that in mind, the Robot Olympics were born. The event was widely reported on by The Guardian and others, and while there were many funny moments, it was overall quite a success.

There were a variety of different sporting events involved, including football, track, kickboxing, table tennis, dance, and speed skating, among others.

Some of the funny bloopers included the 1500-meter dash, where one robot had to back out because its head came off its body. In the football game, the robots seemed to have difficulty identifying their opponents, causing them to collide with each other, resulting in the whole match moving very slowly.

In the kickboxing events, one of the robots actually got knocked out. It had to be pulled out of the ring by its human handlers. It seems odd that a robot could get knocked out, but apparently, it happens.

According to Reuters, there were 280 teams involved, coming from 16 countries. In their report, Max Polter, who is a robotics programmer from Germany, said:

“You can test a lot of interesting new and exciting approaches in this contest. If we try something and it doesn’t work, we lose the game. That’s sad but it is better than investing a lot of money into a product which failed.”

One of the things that people liked most about this event was that it wasn’t just put on for the engineers. Instead, the public was invited to attend. With tickets costing anywhere from $17.83 to $80.77, it was a fun event for everyone. If interested, you can get a peek at some of the action in this video:

It has not yet been announced whether this event will be held every four years like the traditional Olympics, annually, or if this is just going to be a one-time thing. What is very likely, however, is that we will be seeing more robotics competitions in the future, as they are an amazing opportunity to push robotics technology forward.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.