Robot band to debut at World Humanoid Robot Games

A robot band presented by its developer based in Hefei City of east China's Anhui Province is set to make debut for global audiences at the opening ceremony of the World Humanoid Robot Games on Thursday, featuring a splendid fusion of technology and art.

Designed by a tech company from Hefei, the robot band consists of five robot "musicians" playing a keyboard, a lead guitar, drum and bass, and a rhythm guitar. Requiring no scores, the robot band members can perform solos and ensembles with smooth, flowing precision, thanks to their shared computing "brain" that analyzes scores and notes in real time.

"This is a page of musical score in staff notation. After our robot processes it electronically, it proceeds to an intelligent analysis of motions. Take the folk song Fengyang Flower Drum as an example. At 2.67 seconds, (our keyboardist) presses the 53rd and 60th keys with the second and sixth fingers of its left hand, and steps on the sustain pedal. All these motions are concluded to be a single action, guided by one instruction. For a three-minute song, the robot will generate about 1,000 instructions," said Wu Chao, a research and development engineer from Hefei Panshi Technology, who created the robot band.

The robot band will play a vital part at the opening ceremony of the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, the first-ever international sports festival for humanoids. To prepare for the event, engineers also upgraded the hardware for band members, replacing pneumatic joints with motor-driven ones to handle faster rhythms.

For the future, researchers hope to make the robots more human-like, suitable for music teaching.

"Our two guitarists and bassist use full-fret pneumatic cylinders to press chords, while our more anthropomorphic keyboardists and drummer have extra fingers and arms. Next, we aim to develop more human-like arms for faster, more interactive playing, and equip each robot with AI dialogue so they can converse directly with people," Wu said.

To mark Chinese Sturgeon Protection Day, around 550,000 Chinese sturgeons were released into Jingzhou and Yichang sections of the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei Province, as well as in Shanghai, on Saturday.

Nicknamed "aquatic pandas," Chinese sturgeons have existed for over 140 million years. However, the natural population of the species in the Yangtze plummeted in the late 20th century due to intrusive human activities.

The fish is primarily protected through artificial breeding followed by release into the natural environment. In recent years, China has made significant conservation efforts, including expanding artificial breeding and release and fostering natural breeding of the species.

The annual releases of captive-bred Chinese sturgeons have exceeded 1 million for two consecutive years since 2024, effectively replenishing wild populations of the endangered species.