China is hosting the robot Olympics and its equal parts awesome and sci-fi terror

The World Humanoid Robot Games has just kicked off in Beijing, China after the opening ceremony on August 14. While it looks exciting and fun, it's also a pretty frightening look at our potential future robot overlords.

While robot vacuum cleaners are already steadily infiltrating homes worldwide, the reality of full sized humanoid robots also getting into homes is getting closer to reality too. So why not enjoy them on the track and field too?

What happens at the World Humanoid Robot Games?

The robots competing at the games can take part in several different disciplines including sprinting the 100 metre dash, boxing in the ring and playing football in teams.

There will be more sports across the event, but these few were the ones already shown off at the opening ceremony.

The event has over 500 humanoid robots taking part, spread across 280 teams. These are international with 16 countries represented at the games. That includes the U.S., Germany and Japan.

Check out the below video for a taste of the action.

First ever World Humanoid Robot Games kicks off in Beijing - YouTube

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The event will run from August 14 to August 17. This three-day event is the first of its kind in the world and is held at the National Speed Skating Oval, aka the Ice Ribbon – famed for hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics.

There is plenty of space for humans too as most of these robots are remote controlled by people from a distance.

In total there are 192 teams representing universities and 88 from private companies.

While plenty of falls required human help, there were also many robots that righted themselves, receiving cheers from the crowds.

China has staged a few similar events recently including the first humanoid robot marathon, a robot conference, and the opening of retail stores dedicated to humanoid robots.