The development of artificial intelligence and robotics has led to the fact that now around the world you can find many exhibitions, competitions and competitions for robots. At some events, futuristic demonstrations of the capabilities of robots that develop from year to year take place. These robots are becoming more and more human-like and carry the honorary title of android. At competitions, companies represent their best robots in various disciplines in order to identify the strongest and most capable. There, these robots can set world records. The disciplines for competitions vary greatly depending on the goals of the competition, and the criteria are getting tougher every year. In addition to the fact that robots are “forced” to run, fall, carry objects, orient themselves in space, solve logical problems, play chess and football, they are also taught to dance. What for? For fun, or is this a hidden meaning? With the help of dancing robots, some companies even manage to become world famous or get into the Guinness Book of Records.

One year - four "dancing" world records

The first world record of this year was set by Intel Corporation with the Drone 100 project at the show, organized in honor of the opening of CES 2016 International Exhibition. A real light show of 100 drones to the accompaniment of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony unfolded in the skies of Las Vegas. All movements of quadcopters were synchronized with the orchestra, and at the end they were lined up in the form of a logo. In such a beautiful way they got into the Guinness Book of Records, setting, at that time, a record for the number of unmanned aerial vehicles simultaneously in the air.
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The authors of the project are developers who, as far back as November 2015, were able to lift a hundred drones over the German Tornesch skyward. In the course of the experiment, drones were controlled by specialists using a PC. Intel was the author and developer of the software, while Ars Electronica Futurelab was responsible for the artistic implementation.

The invasion of Chinese robots

Excluding records for flying drones, records for dancing robots are wholly owned by China. This year they installed it twice, but under different circumstances.



The first world record for the number of dancing robots was set quite pompously for the Chinese New Year in Guangzhou at the New Year performance. This show looked over 700 million viewers and the most exciting part of it was the performance of 540 robots and 29 drones performing a synchronous dance to the song of the Chinese singer Sun Nana. The song is dedicated to how “China soars to the top of the world”, and in confirmation of this against the background of an artist, an army of robots and drones are simultaneously swinging, performing dance “pa” with their hands and feet, creating a majestically intimidating picture. But such a picture was made intentionally - cameras shot robots from such angles, so that they seemed bigger. In fact, the height of each robot is 42 centimeters with a weight of 1.5 kg.

The giant antenna was responsible for synchronizing the movements of the robots. Developers had enough smartphones to control one or six robots, but to synchronize 540 robots, a more complicated data exchange system was required. The main problem for engineers was not the creation of sufficiently flexible machines, but the selection of movements for the song that fall into the rhythm. For this composition, robots were taught to perform 12 sets of dance steps. This show helped UBTECH Robotics Corp. in promoting its new model Apha 1S. Programmable humanoid robots Apha 1S are intended for entertainment purposes only.

New most robotic dance in history

The next record was set in just six months. This year was very fruitful for the company Ever Win Company & Ltd. In August, at the “Chinese Oktoberfest” - the Qingdao Beer Festival, which is held in Shandong Province in China, they managed to break the world record for the number of robots dancing at the same time.



To beat the previous record, robots had to dance for at least a minute. And this time, 1007 QRC-2 robots were able to do it, but not everyone passed this test. There were 1040 total robots, but 33 of them fell or stopped. All robots, whose height was 43.8 centimeters, were controlled from a mobile device and operated under software control with a special encryption technology that prevented interference from other mobile devices in the test area.

A new record of flying drones - 500 quadcopters in the air

After the success of the project Drone 100, the engineers immediately began to create advanced flight coordination algorithms and soon the company took to the air already 500 drones, called the Intel Shooting Star. And this they broke their own record.

Intel Shooting Star is the company's second branded drone after the industrial model Falcon 8+. With a weight of 280 grams it can be in the air for up to 20 minutes. The design provides protection for the screws. The hull is not afraid of splashing, so it can fly even in the rain. This model is created for entertainment and will be used to create animations in the night sky.

The quadcopter is equipped with LEDs capable of reproducing over 4 billion colors. The software analyzes the shapes that should appear in the sky and optimizes the flight path of each drone. You can manage all the drones from just one computer. And the creation of animation for them takes only a few days.



Models of "dancing" robots are created solely for entertainment. They will soon be pop stars with their inherent fame and tours around the world.

But these entertaining skills are very helpful in creating useful robots. For example, robots intended for the early development of children or robotic helpers. Already, robots perform socially important functions around the world, for example in South Korea they patrol state borders, in the UK they are used as assistants for students, in Japan, in general, every year they are moving closer and closer to creating the perfect assistant for humans.