On a soccer pitch in Beijing, “T1” is practising shots and taking up positions. T1 is no ordinary player, however, but a gold medal-winning humanoid robot training for the first World Humanoid Robot Games, taking place in Beijing from August 15.

T1 is part of a race to take the lead in humanoid robotics, as China looks to become more self-sufficient in advanced technologies.

The Games will bring together teams from more than 20 countries for events ranging from track and field to dance and martial arts, as well as practical applications such as industrial handling and medical services.

T1 and its two teammates, fielded by Tsinghua University’s Hephaestus team, made history for China last month by winning gold in the “Humanoid, adult size” category of the 28-year-old RoboCup Humanoid League in Brazil.

“The Chinese government is actively promoting humanoid robot development,” said Zhao Mingguo, Chief Scientist at Booster Robotics, maker of the T1. “To advance technology, the government is actively organising competitive events, and this sports games is one such experience.”

While some may dismiss such events as gimmicks, industry experts and participants see them as a decisive spur to advance humanoid robots toward practical real-world deployment.

Although the Hephaestus team would hardly trouble even junior human opposition, Booster Robotics views soccer as a powerful test of perception, decision-making and control technologies that could later be applied in factories or homes.

“Playing football is a testing and training ground for ... helping us refine our capabilities,” Zhao said.

And just as in real life, moving on from the training ground is often a challenge.

Hephaestus is building on software developed for Brazil to improve the players’ positioning skills.

But the performance of humanoid robots still depends to a great extent on environmental variables such as the surface and hardness of the ground and the gradient of any slopes, according to Hephaestus’s Chen Penghui.

It wouldn’t be the first time a soccer team had visited a new venue and bemoaned the state of the pitch.