Latency

Latency is lag. You press a button, a signal travels to the robot, the robot works out what to do, and only then does the arm move.

You already know the feeling from video calls, where someone answers a beat too late. A robot boxer has the same problem, only the stakes are a punch in the face.

At the Hangzhou tournament, one team chose a plain game controller over voice commands because the gamepad had less lag, Live Science reported. Fewer milliseconds meant faster hits.