Droids demonstrate precision marching at world humanoid robot games opening

The second World Humanoid Robot Games, which kicked off in Beijing on Saturday, presented grand robot formations at its opening ceremony, demonstrating synchronized marching, formation changes, and acrobatic stunts.

The marching formation display tested the robots' motion control, autonomous obstacle avoidance, and integrated standing-walking-running capabilities.

Three formations of autonomous robots took part in the parade. The first was comprised of 80 robots marching with uniform steps, synchronized arm swings, and perfectly aligned ranks. The robots also changed formations while moving.

Achieving such synchronized group movement required enhanced environmental perception, precise individual spatial positioning, and group coordination. According to the training team, all of this depended on the robots' computing power.

"The main control system placed in the robot's chest cavity has ultra-strong mobile computing power. All calculations are completed on this platform before being sent to all end effectors to execute the commands. It uses a WiFi and 5G dual-line setup to ensure real-time communication stability. We trained them for nearly two months," explained Dong Hao, vice president of research and development at Beijing Accelerated Evolution Technology Co., Ltd.

Another formation of 50 adult-sized robots were trained to march to the main stage, with two breaking ranks to perform high-difficulty "Thomas flair" gymnastics moves and other stunts, before all robots exit in perfect unison.

These robots will also compete in soccer, running, high jump, and tug-of-war during the games, demonstrating humanoid robots' autonomous perception, motion control, and group coordination capabilities.

Droids demonstrate precision marching at world humanoid robot games opening

Extremely heavy rain battered the Mabian Yi Autonomous County in Leshan, southwest China's Sichuan Province, in the early hours of Saturday, triggering flash floods that inundated streets and damaged properties, forcing the evacuation of over 1,400 residents.

The local weather service issued an orange alert -- the second highest in China's four-tier color-coded weather warning system -- for the heavy rain at 01:33 and upgraded it to a red one -- the highest -- at 02:44.

The rain triggered flash floods, causing floodwaters to surge into urban areas.

Several streets were submerged, with large amounts of debris washed onto the roads.

Many vehicles, shops, and buildings along the streets were also flooded and damaged.

Efforts to assess the damage, clear debris, and carry out other recovery work are gathering pace. Measures to prevent secondary disasters are being implemented simultaneously.

As the rain ceased in the morning, debris removal and recovery efforts in the affected areas began immediately.

As the flood has left some residents stranded, local authorities swiftly organized personnel to carry out emergency rescue operations.

As of 07:00, a total of 446 households of 1,455 people had been evacuated and relocated across the county.

"We have mobilized approximately 2,000 personnel and over 30 vehicles and pieces of machinery to carry out emergency response and debris removal across the entire affected area. We expect to complete the road clearance and traffic restoration by tomorrow afternoon. We will soon begin disinfection across the entire area," said Ren Wenfeng, Communist Party committee secretary of Minjian Town of the Mabian Yi Autonomous County.

Heavy rain triggers flash flood in southwest China county