BEIJING -- It's 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 (3 feet) 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! Ahead of the Lunar New Year celebrated next week, 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 will be devoted to technology and — yes, again — robots will take center stage.People will see them dancing and also them stacking blocks on top of others to make a little tower, skewering hawthorn berries onto a stick — coated with a syrup, a popular sweet snack — or playing soccer."Some events were also available last year but the finness of the actions and the high-tech vibe are stronger” this time, Qui added.Popular ReadsNancy Guthrie live updates: New details about suspect releasedFeb 12, 6:31 PMThe mysterious Nancy Guthrie abduction: A full timelineFeb 12, 8:14 AM'Bring her home': Savannah Guthrie addresses her mother missing in possible abductionFeb 2, 10:51 PMChina has been scaling up its efforts to develop better robots that can perform different activities, powered by artificial intelligence and with less human intervention.
But 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.“It is an AI environment, which means, once the whistle sounds, the remote control will all be put aside and all its decision-making and motion control are made by the robots themselves,” said Ren Zixin, director of marketing at Booster Robotics.
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