AI robots play football matches in China, show off skills, and take a few falls

Robots have manufactured, served, and now, they're playing football. Here's what happened in a recent robot vs robot football competition in China

There's a lot that has been done using artificial intelligence, including chatbots and agentic AI. But now, AI-powered robots have been used to play an actual football match. Yes, this is exactly what has happened in Beijing, wherein four teams of humanoid robots participated in 3-on-3 football matches on Saturday night. This was reportedly a preview of what is to come at the World Humanoid Robot Games, expected soon in Beijing, AP reported.

Fully Autonomous And Running On AI

Robots battling it out in the field at the inaugural RoBoLeague robot soccer competition held in Beijing, Saturday, June 28, 2025. ((AP Photo/Ng Han Guan))

By Shaurya Sharma

Shaurya Sharma is the Technology Editor at Hindustan Times Digital Streams, where he oversees technology coverage across digital and social platforms. With over eight years of experience across editorial, video production, and digital media, his work focuses on smartphones, AI, consumer gadgets, and shaping audience-first content strategies for modern tech consumers.

He began his career in 2018 as a fashion cinematographer before turning his lifelong passion for technology into a profession. From spending his childhood immersed in tech magazines, video games, and the latest gadgets to covering the global consumer tech industry today, technology has remained a constant throughout his journey.

Over the years, Shaurya has worked with some of India’s leading media organisations, including CNN-News18, Sportskeeda, and Guiding Tech, where he led video initiatives that combined strong editorial storytelling with engaging visual and social-first execution.

A graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication from Manipal University, Shaurya has reviewed hundreds of products across categories including smartphones, laptops, gaming consoles, cameras, and wearables. Beyond work, he is passionate about animal welfare, environmental causes, and automobiles, particularly turbo-petrol cars

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The report added these humanoid robots were functioning fully autonomously on artificial intelligence, and there was no human support involved.

Now, how does a humanoid robot function on its own without human intervention? Well, firstly, they would need sensors and hardware capable enough to navigate their weight through the field, and this is exactly what the case is in this instance as well. These robots had advanced visual sensors, and they could identify the ball and go through the field accordingly, the report added.

Further, the robots are also able to stand on their own if they accidentally do fall, just like real-life players do.

But not all was smooth sailing for the humanoid robots involved in this game, as many had to be carried off the field, t

As for the final match, Tsinghua University's THU Robotics actually ended up defeating China Agricultural University's Mountain Sea Team in a score that was, at the end of the match, 5 to 3, and they did end up winning the championship.

China Is Boosting Its Robotics Prowess

There are already talks in place which might allow humanoid robots to play alongside humans. But for this, safety would be a great priority, Cheng Hao, founder and CEO of Booster Robotics, who provided the hardware for the competition, said.

He said that in the future, "we may arrange for robots to play football with humans. That means we must ensure the robots are completely safe." He added, “For example, a robot and a human could play a match where winning doesn’t matter, but real offensive and defensive interactions take place. That would help audiences build trust and understand that robots are safe.”

(With AP Inputs)