Hitch Open Ping-Pong Embodied (HOPE) AI Challenge Joins the 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games, Seeding Advanced Physical AI Against Human Performance

BEIJING, June 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 2026 Hitch Open Ping-Pong Embodied AI Challenge (the "HOPE AI Challenge") — created by the Intelligent Racing Foundation as a new physical AI competition league in the Hitch Open World AI Championships — has been selected as an official competition of the Second World Humanoid Robot Games. The challenge debuts in August 2026 at the National Speed Skating Oval (Ice Ribbon), turning one of the world's fastest sports into a proving ground for how well humanoid robots can see, decide, and move.
The selection takes the HOPE AI Challenge from laboratory demonstrations to open competition on one of the sport's biggest international stages. It also extends the Hitch Open platform beyond AI racing into embodied AI and humanoid robotics, setting a ne