Overview

• Unitree Robotics’ H1 model clinched the opening gold by finishing the 1,500-metre race in 6 minutes 34 seconds, outpacing domestic and international contenders.
• Competitors experienced frequent tumbles, collisions and technical breakdowns—including overheating and battery drain—that underscored gaps in autonomy, robustness and endurance.
• Organisers view the Games as a large-scale data-collection exercise to stress-test hardware and software under real-world conditions while furthering China’s AI and robotics industrial strategy backed by more than $20 billion in recent subsidies.
• The competition features roughly 192 university teams and 88 private-enterprise entrants from leading institutions and firms such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fourier Intelligence and Booster Robotics.
• Publicly sold tickets priced between 180 and 580 yuan underscore the event’s role as a spectacle designed to raise social awareness and build consumer and industry demand.