The world's first embodied artificial intelligence skills contest using the WorldSkills Competitions' judging standards held in Shanghai from Friday to Sunday is expected to effectively promote humanoid robots' integration into various aspects of life and industrial production.
The contest was part of the Global Developer Pioneers Summit 2025.
The judges of the contest included AI experts, robotics experts, and WorldSkills Competition winners, ensuring that it was professional, and reflected real human needs.
Matches on home services included flower arrangements, folding clothes and serving meals.
Responding to voice commands, relevant humanoid robots were able to accurately find the right flower types from those with similar colors or shapes and arrange them in a narrow-mouth vase smoothly.
"The judges evaluated the robots' recognition abilities, autonomous abilities and reasoning abilities. The contest involved digitization, programming, robotics and even the realm of art," said judge Wang Dajiang.
"We believe that in the future, robots will serve every household, focusing on areas including home services and elderly care. I am confident that through our annual competitions, which feature AI experts and mentoring from champions of the WorldSkills competition, the development of robotic skills will accelerate significantly, This will then enable robots to swiftly integrate into various aspects of daily life and industrial production," said Jiang Lei, principal investigator with the National and Local Co-built Humanoid Robotics Innovation Center.
Embodied AI contest to promote AI application in daily life: insiders
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday that the recent U.S.decision to reduce its troop presence in Germany has no connection to his earlier critical remarks regarding the Iran conflict.
The Pentagon announced on Friday that it is planning to withdraw about 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany, which is expected to be completed over the next six to 12 months. This announcement came after Merz's remarks about the United States being "planless" in its military engagement in Iran and "humiliated by the Iranian leadership."
During an interview with public broadcaster ARD, Merz said that he was not surprised by the U.S. decision on troop reduction.
Merz said that, despite the recent verbal tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump, he would not give up on cooperation with the U.S. side. Calling the United States as Germany's most important partner within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Merz said that there has been no reduction in U.S. nuclear-sharing arrangements and that the U.S. commitment to providing nuclear deterrence for the NATO region remains in place.
Merz also confirmed that the United States will not deploy Tomahawk cruise missiles in Germany for the time being, but he believed that the plan has not been permanently abandoned. "The Americans currently do not have enough themselves," he said.
The Tomahawk weapon systems were originally pledged by former U.S. President Joe Biden in 2024 to bolster European deterrence. Along with the troop cut announcement, multiple U.S. media outlets recently said Washington has also canceled the plan to reinforce European troops.
Trump said on Saturday that the United States plans to withdraw "a lot further" than the 5,000 troops from Germany that the Pentagon had said earlier.
"We're going to cut way down, and we're cutting a lot further than 5,000," Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One in the southeastern U.S. state of Florida.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Thursday that Germany is prepared for a possible reduction of the U.S. troops in the country.
More than 36,000 U.S. active duty troops were deployed to bases throughout Germany as of the end of last year, along with nearly 1,500 reservists and 11,500 civilians, according to Defense Department data.
Germany also hosts the headquarters of U.S. European Command and Africa Command, and its Ramstein Air Base serves as a key hub for U.S. military operations.
German Chancellor Merz says US troop withdrawal not related to his remarks on Iran conflict
