Robots boast athletic skills at the first International Humanoid Olympiad in an ancient Greek city

Forget the human Olympics, this arena in Olympia, Greece, is all about machines flexing their athletic skills.

At the first International Humanoid Olympiad, robots are showing just how much they can do – dancing, boxing, playing soccer, and even archery.

The ancient Greek city of Olympia is the birthplace of the Olympics.

Organisers say they want to bring hype to robots, calling humanoids “physical AI”.

Despite the explosive advance of artificial intelligence (AI) in applications like ChatGPT, their physical cousins, robots with human-like appearances and skills, are lagging years behind.

This event is designed to showcase the technology and push the industry forward, according to organisers.

“We bring the humanoid Olympiad to Olympia because this is the place where humans started testing their limits for the first time, and this is where robots will start again. And we want Greece to be at the forefront of robotics and physical AI,” said Minas Liarokapis, organiser of the event and the CEO of AI-powered robotic worker company  Acumino.

Alongside humanoids, robotic dogs and bionic limbs are showing off next-level dexterity. 

One example is the Psyonic Ability Hand, a robotic prosthetic designed to assist both humans and robots missing a hand to perform a range of tasks.

Aadeel Akhtar, CEO and founder of Psyonic, said it can handle everything from household chores, such as cooking and laundry to extreme activities such as paragliding or arm wrestling.

“We had three wooden boards set on fire and we had one of our users punch through it. And the hand is very robust. I've dropped it off the roof of my house at 10 meters, it survived. I put it in a dryer for 10 minutes,” Akhtar said.

Developers envision robots going beyond sports to assist humans in daily life, though some believe household tasks remain the biggest challenge.

“The house is the final frontier. I really believe that humanoids will go to space first and then to the houses,” said Liarokapis.

“Because it's much easier to operate such a machine in a different extraterrestrial environment. The house is the final frontier in the sense that it's so unstructured, so dynamic,” he added.

“It requires dexterous manipulation. It requires a level of skill that only humans have. So for a humanoid system, it is really the Holy Grail”.

Others argue that robotics is reaching a tipping point.

“Now we have 3, 4, 5 billion dollars circulating within the next 18 months in the humanoid global industry,” said Luis Sentis, a professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin.

“This means that in 12 months, [it] is what we call in the United States 'make or break',” Sentis added.

“It's either it happens or it doesn't happen. So I think that we're going to see in the next 12 months cracking problem after problem in assembly, in transportation, in moving logistics”.

Organisers hope to make this competition a yearly showcase of robotic innovation.

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