It is not just people — in China, the robots are also getting ready to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Friday was dress rehearsal day for four cute humanoid robots, each about 95 centimeters tall, at a mall in western Beijing. Curious onlookers stopped to watch.
Each robot got a colorful lion costume and within minutes the moves started: Bend the knees, up, to the left, to the right, shake the mask, and do it all again.
Photo: AP
Ahead of the Lunar New Year, and as part of different “fairs” and activities around Beijing, some venues have been busy setting up their stages and props.
For a second year in a row, one of the fairs is to be devoted to technology and — yes, again — robots are to take center stage.
They are programmed to dance and stack blocks on top of others to make a little tower, skewer hawthorn berries onto a stick — coated with a syrup, a popular sweet snack — or play soccer.
Photo: AP
“This year, the number of our robots has increased a lot,” said Qiu Feng, a member of the organizing committee. “They will perform dance, martial arts, Peking Opera, poetry and soccer.”
“Some events were also available last year, but the finesse of the actions and the high-tech vibe are stronger” this time, Qui added.
China has been scaling up its efforts to develop better robots that can perform different activities, powered by artificial intelligence and with less human intervention.
Though they can now do things that were difficult to imagine a few years ago, humans are still needed to help them — for example, to dress them or move them when they stop in the middle of a mini-soccer field.
“Technology is developing faster and becoming more advanced every day,” Qui said. “As long as we keep up with this trend, our ... fair will continue to evolve and rise with the times.”
The robots performing at the mall were developed by some Chinese startups, like Booster Robotics (加速進化).
The company is to display about 20 humanoid robots, which can also dance and play soccer.
“It is an AI environment, which means, once the whistle sounds, the remote control will all be put aside and all its decisionmaking and motion control are made by the robots themselves,” Booster Robotics director of marketing Ren Zixin (任梓新) said.
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