Humanoid Robots Play Ping-Pong at Beijing's 2026 World Games

Behind the event is Beiao Group, a Beijing state-owned enterprise founded in 1994 that has delivered more than 150 major events – the 2008 Olympics, the 2022 Winter Olympics, the Hangzhou Asian Games, and the first World Humanoid Robot Games. The group handles venue construction, competition planning, technical support, and safety protocols.

The HOPE AI Challenge is part of the Hitch Open platform, which has spent years pushing AI into demanding real-world environments. In 2025, Hitch Open ran an autonomous driving competition on the 99 hairpin turns of Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, where nine university teams competed under GPS-denied, low-visibility, and slick-road conditions. The ping-pong challenge extends that mission from speed to dexterity – from machines that move through the world to machines that interact with it.

For the robotics industry, the value is in the failure data. Real competition produces edge cases that scripted lab tests miss. A robot that misreads a spin serve and overcorrects, or hesitates on a fast return, generates data on sensor latency, control-loop timing, and algorithm limits. That data feeds back into hardware, controllers, and safety systems.

The Games run five days at the Ice Ribbon. The HOPE AI Challenge is one of several events. The full schedule and team roster have not been released.