On the evening of February 16, during the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, a group of martial arts-performing robots captivated the audience. The act, titled "Wǔ BOT," featured robots collaborating with young students from Henan's Tagou Martial Arts School. Through agile movements and seamless human-robot combat sequences, the performance earned widespread applause. The robots demonstrated abilities such as parkour, consecutive one-legged backflips, complex jumps, rapid formation changes, sparring with children using staffs, and even performing drunken fist techniques.
How were these feats achieved? What groundbreaking technologies made their global debut? In an exclusive interview, the founder of the robotics company, Wang Xingxing, and the director of the 2026 Spring Festival Gala's technical arts team, Chi Yuhan, revealed the training secrets and advanced engineering behind "Wǔ BOT." For this standout performance, the gala’s production team and the robotics developers jointly created and refined several "world-first" robotic maneuvers, which were showcased for the first time on the Spring Festival Gala stage.
Wang Xingxing, founder of Unitree Robotics, explained that the goal was to push the robots to their limits during the gala. The robots executed three consecutive one-legged backflips in a fluid, eye-catching sequence. Wang detailed that the robots were launched using a custom-designed catapult device, similar to how humans might use aids for extreme physical tasks. With the catapult, the robots could leap 2 to 3 meters high, performing forward and side flips mid-air before landing steadily. "Up close, you could see it jump as high as the ceiling," Wang noted. To perfect this action, his team conducted hundreds of millions of training iterations in simulation before fine-tuning on physical robots. "This maneuver demands extremely high standards in balance control, dynamic response, and landing stability—it’s a world-first achievement," he added.
Even more impressive was the high-speed, synchronized formation change involving over twenty robots on stage. While last year’s "Yāng BOT" performance relied on slow walking for formation shifts, this year the robots managed intricate maneuvers and martial arts moves while running quickly. This highly dynamic, coordinated swarm control technology also marked a global premiere. A staff member, Lian Yingying, highlighted the practicality of this advancement, stating it lays the groundwork for future applications involving robot clusters or individual robot coordination in various scenarios. To ensure the robots’ movements aligned perfectly with the music, the martial artists, and the variable stage terrain, the team meticulously adjusted each action, sometimes refining timing down to 0.1-second increments.
From one-legged flips to adapting to different surfaces, Wang emphasized that the team’s ambitions extend beyond having robots perform routines on flat ground. By challenging technical boundaries on a national stage like the Spring Festival Gala, they aim to drive progress across the robotics industry. Chi Yuhan, director of the 2026 gala’s technical arts team, shared that the act was conceived around the theme of a "future martial arts school." The performance included playful details: during sparring scenes with children, the robots were equipped with dexterous hands, allowing them to securely catch staffs and execute stylish twirling motions. For the young performers from Tagou Martial Arts School, it was their first time sharing the stage with robots. An 11-year-old participant, surnamed Fu, described the experience as novel and thrilling, likening the robot sparring to training with an senior disciple, which greatly motivated them.
One of the most amusing moments occurred later in the act: after sparring with the children, a robot suddenly "collapsed" as if drunk, then swiftly sprang back up with a kip-up. Chi revealed that such moments were carefully choreographed; during rehearsals, the image of a falling robot inspired the team to incorporate a drunken fist-style recovery for added flair. "By integrating AI into humanoid robots, they could become 'fellow disciples' training alongside children in future martial arts schools. We hope 'Wǔ BOT' plants a seed of interest in technology in young viewers’ hearts," Chi remarked.