URKL 2026 — Ultimate Robot Knock‑out Legend — is an international humanoid robot fighting league initiated and organized in Shenzhen by EngineAI, a Chinese humanoid robot manufacturer. Teams prepare their robots for ring combat by developing their own AI models that teach machines mixed fighting techniques, movement coordination, and balance. The teams will compete in a group stage, and the best will advance to the December finals, where their trained robots will fight in the ring.
In this year’s qualifying rounds, Brave Mind Fighters finished fourth out of 200 teams, marking the best performance by European engineers. In August, the Polish team will take part in the next stage of the tournament in Shenzhen, where robots will compete directly in the ring.
Experts involved in the project noted that similar training processes are used for robots in industry, logistics, rescue operations, and critical infrastructure. However, the outcome of a robot fight does not itself demonstrate readiness for industrial deployment.
“Dynamics and impact resistance will be key in the tournament, while industrial use requires reliable manipulation, safety, long‑term operation, and measurable return on investment. We treat the URKL tournament as a practical laboratory and a test of selected humanoid training methods, not a full‑scale test of commercial feasibility,” said Cybulski.
The first stage of the team’s work involved collecting data on boxer movements using motion capture — a system of depth cameras that track human motion by precisely recording distances to surrounding objects.
“This is a complex task because, for example, when the robot throws a hook, it must rotate its torso like a real boxer without falling over. It also reacts to the opponent’s blows, which require evasive maneuvers or guards,” said Gerke.
Training included the use of Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO), an algorithm that teaches robots optimal strategies by maximizing rewards for desired behaviors such as stability, adherence to reference movements, smoothness, and task completion. Penalties were applied for falls, vibrations, loss of balance, or exceeding limits. Training took place in a virtual environment, enabling a vast number of trials in a timeframe impossible with a physical robot.
Cybulski emphasized that although URKL has a sporting dimension, the knowledge gained could be applied in the economy.
He noted that the most advanced robotic technologies involve precise operation of robotic limbs. Companies in China and Germany are already conducting pilot implementations of humanoid robots in logistics, including carrying various objects.
“The biggest challenge for roboticists worldwide is developing robot control systems that can operate in a ‘human environment.’ For example, you could show a robot an action, and it would quickly learn and repeat it. This would ensure flexibility and fast deployment. Such humanoids wouldn’t need retooling like industrial robots — they could immediately take over a human’s position and begin working. Major companies are developing this technology. The tournament fits directly into this technological race,” Gerke said.
Brave Mind Fighters consists of seven engineers and students from various scientific fields. “It was created at the intersection of several communities: the engineering and entrepreneurial community from “Śniadania Robotyczne,” the HumanTech Center at SWPS University, students from Warsaw University of Technology, and contributors to the Polish language model project Bielik AI. We combine expertise in AI, robotics, simulation, motion control, mechatronics, electronics, and software engineering,” explained the team’s technical leader, Piotr Gerke.
Cybulski noted that team members invested thousands of hours of their own time in preparing for the tournament and did not use external funding. The team is also in talks with Polish companies potentially interested in piloting humanoid robots in their operations. According to Cybulski, such pilots would help develop a long‑term robotics strategy. “Of course, we’re a bit ahead of the curve technologically in the Polish market. But in China, this is already happening,” he said.
He added that pilots and audits of robotic solutions should be a natural next step for companies preparing for the upcoming wave of economic applications of Physical AI — systems that combine an AI “brain” with a physical machine “body.”
He also stressed that this requires investment in well‑equipped robotics laboratories and greater access to the high computing power provided by supercomputers.
(pu)
Source: PAP