London, May 15 : It was like a merger of high technology and high art when a robot conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Both the audience and performers burst into applause after Honda's Asimo(Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility), 1.3 metre (4ft 3in) tall robot led the symphony in a performance of 'The Impossible Dream.'

The robot was programmed to mimic the orchestra's education director as he conducted the piece in front of a pianist six months ago, reports BBC.

However, one limitation of Asimo is that it cannot respond to the musicians' actions as of yet.

So while conducting the early rehearsals, Asimo slowed the tempo and the orchestra lost its place, something a human would have sensed.

"It's not a communicative device, it simply is programmed to do a set of gestures," musical director Leonard Slatkin said.

Bassist Larry Hutchinson said that although the movements were a little stiff, they were 'very humanlike, much more fluid than I thought'.