The 1.75 cm tall robot named “EveR 6” guided more than 60 musicians of the Korean National Orchestra. A South Korean-made robot made his debut as a conductor in front of a sold-out crowd in Seoul on Friday and wowed audiences with his impeccable performance rather than a human maestro.

The 1.8-metre-tall robot named “EveR 6” guided more than 60 musicians from the Korean National Orchestra playing traditional Korean instruments. The robot successfully conducted compositions, both independently and in collaboration with a human maestro who stood next to him for about half an hour, and entertained the more than 950 spectators that filled the Korean National Theatre.

When the robot first emerged from under the stage in an elevator, it was showered with applause and returned to the audience with a salute. Throughout the performance, the robot’s blue eyes stared at the musicians without blinking, just nodding to the rhythm of the music. According to the audience, the newcomer performed well on her stage debut.

“I came here worried if this robot could do it without crashing,” 19-year-old music college student Kim Jimin told AFP. “But I found that he blended in very well with the musicians… It was like a new world to me.”

While there have been musical performances led by robot chefs in the past, including a 2017 concert led by the robot YuMi, in Italy, South Koreans were able to see a robot chef on stage for the first time.

Developed by the state-run Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, EveR 6 was programmed to reproduce the movements of a human conductor using motion capture technology. However, the machine is not capable of listening or improvising in real time.

The robot’s engineer, Lee Dong-wook, said that the developers of EveR 6 are currently working on allowing the robot to make unprogrammed movements. Music columnist Song Joo Ho, who came to watch the performance, said that improvising and communicating with musicians in real time is the next big step.

“Musicians need to improvise in real time when they make a mistake or something goes wrong.”