PREVIEW

BY MARK WORGAN

China’s flagship Lunar New Year television event was taken over by autonomous humanoid robots on Tuesday - who conducted a world-first martial arts display.

At the 2026 Spring Festival Gala, broadcast by China Media Group, robotics firm Unitree Robotics showcased its G1 and H2 humanoid robots in a large-scale, synchronised performance combining martial arts and acrobatics.

The company said the routine broke several technical records, including continuous freestyle vaulting, airborne flips reaching more than three metres in height, and a series of complex single-leg and wall-assisted backflips.

One sequence involved a spin of seven-and-a-half rotations, which Unitree described as another first for humanoid robots.

Engineers also demonstrated what they said was the fastest coordinated movement by a humanoid robot cluster, with units reaching speeds of up to four metres per second while maintaining formation. Newly developed dexterous hands allowed the robots to grip and swap martial arts props during the performance.

Behind the scenes, the display relied on a newly upgraded high-concurrency cluster control system, enabling dozens of robots to move in real time with ultra-low delay.

To maintain balance and positioning, the robots used a self-developed AI fusion localisation system. This combines internal motion data with 3D LiDAR scans of the environment, processed hundreds of times per second. According to the company, this allowed the robots to maintain accurate positioning even during aerial flips, a scenario in which traditional localisation systems can fail.

At the close of the main gala performance, the H2 robot appeared as a “Sword Grandmaster”, completing a choreographed routine before joining a young martial artist in a traditional fist-and-palm salute - a gesture symbolising the passing on of martial arts traditions and the future relationship between humans and machines.

At a separate venue in Yiwu, the H2 robot reappeared dressed as the Monkey King, standing atop robotic “somersault clouds” formed by quadruped robot dogs, before descending to perform at the Egg Theatre.

The performance underlined China’s growing emphasis on combining traditional culture with advanced technology. Unitree said the appearance marked another step in pushing humanoid robots towards more complex, real-world applications.