A full-scale group dance featuring humanoid robots, controlled entirely by artificial intelligence, was presented at the opening ceremony of the 48th WorldSkills Competition in China. The performance was presented as the first of its kind in history.
The 19 robots performed complex movements alongside 120 dancers, maintaining synchronization down to the millisecond. The robots were also able to determine their positions in real time and avoid obstacles that arose, which was an important part of the demonstration’s technical capabilities.
In this case, the focus was not only on the robots’ movements. The joint performance by humans and machines required the system to simultaneously control the movements of multiple robots while maintaining coordination among their actions. This demonstrates how complex it is to coordinate AI-controlled group movements in real time, particularly when people are also moving in the same space.
A notable aspect of the demonstration was the coordination of simultaneous human and robot movements, as the machines did not simply perform pre-programmed motions but had to maintain their positions and respond to their surroundings in real time. That distinction is important when a robot operates not in isolation, but alongside people and as part of a group.
The joint performance by 19 robots and 120 dancers also shows that movement accuracy alone is not enough to evaluate such systems. The speed of synchronization, the ability to respond to the surrounding environment, and coordinated operation among multiple machines must also be taken into account. This demonstration was an attempt to make these capabilities visible on a single stage.
