Watch 1,069 dancing robots set a new Guinness World Record

Over a thousand Chinese robots have set a new world record for dancing simultaneously.

The knee-high androids were carefully arranged in the courtyard outside the offices of WL Intelligence Technology in Guangdong, China, before performing the choreographed routine.

During the dance, officials from Guinness World Records paced up and down to check the robots kept to the beat.

Of the 1,100 robots which started the dance, 1,069 completed it. A few refused to dance, while others fell over and continued the routine while lying on their back - as you can see one doing at the 36-second mark in the video below.

This attempt beats the previous world record for synchronised dancing robots, which stood at an already-impressive 1,007.

Called Dobi, the robot used to set the new record can sing, box and perform kung fu moves, which could well be a problem when they become self-aware and kick start a deadly but admittedly well-choreographed bid for world domination. At least that's probably what Elon Musk makes of all this.

Every robot - apart from those seemingly on strike - was managed by a central control system. The dance had them wave their arms, tap their feet and flashing their eyes in time with each other.