International Robot Olympics begins

Walking, running and even dancing humanoid robots have been pitted against each other at the International Huro Olympic Games in northern China.

Nineteen international teams have travelled to Harbin, the provincial capital of northeastern China's Heilongjiang province to put their robots to the test in 17 disciplines, ranging from sprint and kung fu to boxing and dance.

To compete, robots had to be less than 60 centimetres long and be built in human form with a head, two arms and two legs.

The short-distance five-metre sprint provided the first winner of the afternoon, with a time of 20 seconds.

Woojin Lee, whose team Rabun Gap represents the US, is fascinated by his metallic athletes: "I'm really sure that all the robots in there have been through thousands and thousands of hours of work until they ended up like that and, probably, when you see a robot working after you've worked on it, that's when you feel most excited."

Supervisor and referee Piao Songhao said learning and entertainment go hand in hand at the robot games: "Boxing is also really exciting. Although it's only on a small stage, but look, they are fighting back and forth. In there, you have both education and enjoyment. So, whilst watching students and audiences have automatically learnt something new in term of technology."