RBR50 Spotlight: Disney develops new approach for building robotic characters

Organization: Disney Research
Country: U.S.
Website: www.disneyresearch.com
Year Founded: 2008
Number of Employees: 101-500
Innovation Class: Technology

Disney Research has long been at the intersection of imagination and cutting-edge technology. And the unit outdid itself again in late 2023 when it unveiled a new robot that wandered through Disneyland California’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. The BDX Droid was inspired by the BD-1 from the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order video game.

Moritz Bächer, associate lab director at Disney Research in Zurich, led development of the robot. It combines modular hardware, learning software, and 3D printing.

BDX’s head has four degrees of freedom to look up, down, around, and tilt. It also has five degree-of-freedom legs with hip joints that allow it to walk while dynamically balancing.

And the droid can do more than walk. Disney Research engineers and Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development animators worked closely together to ensure that it can convey emotions by strutting, prancing, or trotting around. To do this, the company developed a reinforcement learning-based pipeline that relies on simulation to combine and balance the vision of an animator with legged locomotion.

Disney is exploring how its robotic characters can enhance the park experience for customers. And these recognizable, charismatic robots could be just the tip of the iceberg.

Disney’s researchers said its new development techniques should significantly reduce the time needed to train a robot on new behaviors. Bächer claimed that Disney can now develop new robotic characters in months rather than years.

We haven’t seen robots like these before, but we could soon start seeing more robotic versions of Disney’s most beloved characters interacting with guests in its parks.

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Explore the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards 2024.

RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards 2024