On Monday Pink Tentacle had a very cool update about Yaskawa Electric’s MOTOMAN robots:

On July 21, a team of four MOTOMAN machines — two dual-armed MOTOMAN-DIA10 robots and two MOTOMAN-HP3 welding robots — gave a special taiko performance at the nearly 400-year-old Kokura Gion Daiko Festival in Kitakyushu, which is famous for its traditional drumming competition. Organizers invited the robots to spice up the special opening ceremony for the competition’s 60th anniversary. The robots — the first ever to play taiko drums at the ancient festival — were paraded through the crowd of spectators on a float while they performed.

Here’s a news segment that aired yesterday about the MOTOMAN robots: