The 2026 Robot World Cup has the ball rolling; see the bids

Humanoid robots took to the field at the Incheon stadium, in South Korea, this Sunday (5), for the final of RoboCup 2026, the world's largest robotics and artificial intelligence competition, known as the Robot World Cup.

The Hephaestus team from Tsinghua University (China) beat the Mountain and Sea team from Agricultural University (China) in the final, with the robots stumbling and colliding on the field before getting up to continue playing.

"Our team's ultimate goal is to be FIFA champions in 2050," said Changsheng Luo, leader of the winning team. He believes that one day robots will be able to play with humans.

Organizers stated that more than 3,000 competitors from 45 countries took part in the competition.

More than 70% of teams used platforms developed by Booster Robotics, a Chinese humanoid robot company, according to Chaoyi Li, head of the company's global team.

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"German teams, Korean teams, American teams, everyone around the world is using Booster," Li said. "It's not just about the Chinese team."

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In addition to the football field, the robots also competed in search and rescue challenges simulating disaster zones.

Source: CNN