Tradition Meets Tech at Spring Festival Gala
Sixteen humanoid robots by China's Unitree stole the spotlight at this year's Spring Festival Gala, performing a vibrant Yangko dance alongside human partners. The bots nailed the folk art's signature move: twirling handkerchiefs with mechanical precision, sending the colorful fabric soaring like confetti at a tech festival .
The Science Behind the Dance
While Elon Musk's Optimus robots still stumble on flat surfaces, Unitree's H1 series (nicknamed Fuxi) executed complex choreography using laser positioning and AI algorithms. Their secret sauce? Dual-motor arms – one spinning handkerchiefs at high speed, another controlling throw-and-catch mechanics. Think of it as robotic jazz hands meets Olympic-level coordination .
Three Months of Robotic Rehearsals
These 1.8-meter-tall performers trained harder than K-pop idols, undergoing 90 days of AI-powered rehearsals to master formation changes and stage navigation. Having previously wowed crowds at NVIDIA's 2024 conference, they're proof that China's robotics game is leveling up faster than a TikTok trend .
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Behind China's humanoid robot dance: How did they catch handkerchiefs?
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