A human-sized robot sprinted faster than any human has before. Another jumped more than 3 metres in the air to break a record. And a third faced off against a human Olympian during a table-tennis showcase match. These were scenes from the second annual World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, at which robots' physical capabilities were put to the test. The games highlighted how fast humanoid robots ' which use artificial intelligence to learn, plan and execute real-world actions ' are advancing. But they also demonstrated that the machines have a long way to go before they'll be used by humans for practical tasks. 'If I ask you which is harder ' folding laundry or doing a backflip ' most people will say folding laundry is way easier,' says Karen Liu, a computer scientist at Stanford University in California. 'But for humanoids, doing a task that we do in our daily lives is actually way harder than a backflip.' This year's games ' which ran from 22 to 26 August and drew more than 600...
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