What Does China’s Spring Festival Droid Show Tell Us?

As millions of people around the world digest the videos of Unitree G1s and other humanoids dancing and leaping on stage with apparent near perfect control, during China’s Spring Gala, what does it all mean?

Well, first, what did we see? Here’s a video from CCTV below, which shows an incredible range of physical movement, and especially lots of synchronisation between multiple units. Plus, in some cases these actions are taking place with dancers who are very close to the droids on stage.

When set to music and with a fancy moving set, the whole thing was very impressive. But….does this tell us anything about the state of humanoid robotics?

Here’s some thoughts – and as TRT is happy to tell you, this site is still learning the ropes as well. But, that said, here’s this site’s take:

Positives:

• The dancing and rolling and jumping over obstacles showed an incredible fluidity of movement, with very little lag visible in intentionality of movement and actually performing that action. There was even a joke set piece, where a droid falls to the floor, but then gets up on its own, as if to tell the world: ‘We have overcome this kind of error.’
• This site saw a physical demo of a Unitree G1 early last summer in London and it was clunky, slow, and the tasks it could perform were underwhelming. It was also 100% tele-operated and only managed to walk around and kick a football (badly). Perhaps that was not a great day for the demo guy, but either way they have come forward by literally leaps and bounds…!
• The dancing was part of a wider trend, especially in China, where humanoids are entering the entertainment sector, mostly there as a novelty item, although as seen, increasingly they are becoming a key part of the show, if not the main part of it.

But:

• It’s unclear how much there was any direct human input into each routine, and how much the droids here had any real autonomy. If every tiny movement was choreographed for months, and months, and months, and there was also plenty of human support on hand to ensure movements followed through, then it doesn’t detract from what was achieved, but it moderates our expectations of what is really possible today. After all, this was not a case of just telling a group of humanoids: ‘These are the dance moves, now go off and do them.’ Far from it.
• There was little hand dexterity on show – and that is really key. Although the droids gripped objects and moved them about via arm deployment, there was little or no specific hand/finger action. And that’s a challenge, as droids that can move freely about a flat stage and wiggle their limbs, even if very smoothly with no lag and with tons of accuracy of movement, are of little practical use on their own. Hand/finger dexterity remains fundamental to the real world use of droids in many settings.

Conclusion

Things are moving quickly, and China is showing how far it’s come. However, fluid limb movements and balance, although very impressive, do not on their own deliver a valuable droid that could play a role in the workforce.

That said, China is investing billions into robotics and as everyone becomes used to this level of performance something even more sophisticated will have to be the next target. Let’s see what the 2027 Spring Gala unveils…!

It is understood that other droids on show included those of the following companies:

• Noetix
• MagicLab
• Galbot
• Other Unitree models, along with the Unitree G1.  

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