A team of Iranian humanoid robots has exhibited laudable displays at the 19th edition of the RoboCup World Championships in China, and has been crowned champions.

On Thursday, the squad of automatons from Tehran-based Amirkabir University of Technology battled its way to glory, and defeated rivals in the rescue simulation section to take the first prize.

In another match of the day, Iran’s humanoid teen-size robot team defeated rivals from Germany in a third-place match to claim the third spot of the annual football tournament for intelligent sporting machines.

The 19th RoboCup World Championships opened in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei on July 19. More than 2,000 robotics professionals and fans from 47 countries vied in the five-day annual contest.

Robots autonomously operated without external control and were assessed on their skills like walking, running, kicking, maintaining balance, visual perception and self-localization.

The RoboCup was launched by Japanese researchers in 1993 in an attempt to use soccer to promote the advancement of robotic science and technology. The ultimate goal was to build a robot soccer team that could compete with human World Cup champion teams by 2050.

The project received unexpected attention from researchers outside Japan, who accordingly requested the contest to be staged internationally.

The RoboCup World Championships have been held annually since 1997, and the games seek to advance the development of artificial intelligence.