From dance floor to war: China readies humanoid robots for combat

BEIJING, Sept 7 – At the World Humanoid Robot Games in China last month, robots jumped, boxed and danced. Some fleet-footed bots ran faster than Usain Bolt over 100 meters. Spectators cheered the machines’ improving capabilities and their meme-worthy stumbles. Two days after the Games ended, the People’s Liberation Army’s official newspaper drew its own conclusions from the show. The PLA Daily called for researchers to accelerate the transfer of cutting-edge technologies from laboratories to military training grounds for robotic “combatants.” China’s defense establishment is accelerating research into humanoids’ military uses and planning for their eventual wartime deployment, according to…