Stellar Performance By Chinese Humanoid Robots At Lunar New Year Showtime

Humanoid robots took the centre stage at China’s most-watched TV show, the annual CCTV Spring Festival gala, on Monday. The show had on display China’s zeal to dominate humanoid robots and its manufacturing future.

Four humanoid robot startups: Unitree Robotics, Galbot, Noetix and MagicLab, showcased their robots at the gala, a televised event that is equivalent to the Super Bowl for the United States.

In its first three sketches, the programme featured humanoid robots, including a lengthy martial arts display in which more than a dozen Unitree humanoids performed advanced fight sequences, swinging nunchucks, poles and swords, in conjunction with human children performers.

The fight sequences also showcased an ambitious robot that took on the mannerisms, unsteady moves and backward falls of China’s “drunken boxing” martial arts style, displaying innovations in multi-robot coordination, where a robot can get up after falling.

The programme’s opening sketch also noticeably displayed Alibaba’s AI chatbot Doubao, while four Noetix humanoid robots appeared alongside human actors in a comedy skit. MagicLab robots enacted a harmonised dance with human entertainers during the song “We Are Made in China”.

The annual CCTV Spring Festival gala is often used to showcase China’s tech ambitions, which are reported to be central to the country’s next-generation manufacturing push.