China’s robot sports craze could eventually put humanoids in homes

On the outskirts of Beijing, young Chinese entrepreneur Cheng Hao sits on an indoor soccer pitch – but this turf isn’t for humans. It’s where engineers working for his start-up, Booster Robotics, train human-like robots to play soccer using artificial intelligence – dribbling, passing, shooting and blocking.

Cheng, a 37-year-old Beijinger, is at the vanguard of China’s decade-long push into humanoid robot technology. He founded the company in 2023, inspired by the release of Tesla’s first humanoid Optimus and the then-groundbreaking ChatGPT-4, and wants to develop the world’s most advanced soccer-playing humanoids.

“There are hundreds of robot soccer teams in the world,” he told CNN. “We need to be the first one in this niche market and then go to other markets.”

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