Robots have been an essential ingredient of Disney theme parks since its inception in 1960, when it implemented its famous “audio-animatronics”, Those already antiquated mechanical figures that performed choreographed movements. That technology was a success and captivated generations of children in the past, turning the Disneylands of the world into colossal business and cultural benchmarks. Robots have been with Disney for a lifetime. That is why its Research and Imagineering branch eat their heads every day with the latest advances in innovation.
But the company knows well that nostalgia is not enough for the children of today. So a new trend is emerging: smart robots. More realistic, more human.
The success of its theme parks is abysmal. In 2019 (before the pandemic), the 14 that it has around the world attracted 156 million visitors and generated € 22 billion in profit. However, Disney faces a more difficult future. The fast pace of digital life and advances in personal technology are redefining what visitors want from a theme park. And the company knows it has to quickly come up with a new generation of tech-based mind-blowing rides if it wants to keep making that much money.
Robots of all kinds have passed through its parks, new and improved have been an important part of its manual. When it opened in 1982, Epcot wowed with a ladder-climbing hydraulic Ben Franklin. In 1989, he presented a Witch of the West that waved his arms and moved his body with speed and precision. More recently, it has introduced robotic characters that appear to speak to visitors (Mr. Potato-Face, 2008). Others move so gracefully that they look like animated videos (a avatar shaman, 2017).
“You know how Elsa, the princess of Frozen. Children have seen the movie a thousand times. So our animatronic Elsa also has to be fast and lyrical. It can’t be clumsy, ”explained Kathryn Yancey, Imagineering’s mechanical engineer in this New York Times report.
Get what is not in real life
In early June, Disney’s animatronic technology took a giant leap. The new attraction of the Disneyland Resort, WEB Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure, has a robot that performs elaborate aerial tricks, as if he were an acrobat. A catapult launches the untethered machine 20 meters into the air, where it completes several pirouettes while autonomously adjusting its trajectory to land on a hidden net.
“It’s exciting because it can be hard to tell if it’s a robot or a person. Older animatronics have a wonderful touch of nostalgia. But I was about 10 or 11 when I stopped believing they were real. Today’s kids are likely to find out at a younger age, ”explains Wade Heath, WEB Slingers engineer.
Spider-Man’s robot is actually 43 kilos of microprocessors, 3D-printed plastic, gyros, accelerometers, aluminum, and other materials. And it took more than three years to develop it. Disney has not wanted to talk about what it has cost, but the company easily invested millions of euros for it.
Does that mean that everything is going to be superheroes flying everywhere? No. Disney has no plans to replace human interpreters. In fact, Winnie the Pooh, Cruella de Vil, Peter Pan, Jasmine, and other mythical characters will still be people in disguise. What is intended with this Disney robotics initiative is to be able to achieve unreal Marvel characters and Star Wars —Huge like the Incredible Hulk, small like Baby yoda or the ones that swing through the air like Spider-Man — who are challenging to materialize in a realistic way.
In the end, it is part of an evolution. Disney parks traditionally offered passive experiences: you sat in a swivel chair and enjoyed those ghosts of The haunted mansion. New attractions have increasingly focused on role play.
They also want to patent soft-body versions “designed to reduce collision impacts during human interaction.” One of his requests features a prototype sketch that resembles Baymax’s body, from the movie Big Hero 6. It has folding chambers filled with air or liquid that could be adjusted to respond to a child’s hug or an accidental collision. This is what they call “automated muscle fiber routing for soft robots.”
The Kiwi project, or how the whole landscape will change
But he does not go over everything that is happening in him backstage Disney is undoubtedly their Kiwi Project. Or rather, his prototype of Groot. This is not an imitation of the character conjured with video or those crude virtual reality glasses. The hermetic research and development division Imagineering had promised a Groot who walked, talked and got excited, as if the arboreal character of The Avengers I would have jumped off the screen and been among us. And he has succeeded.
A free-roaming bipedal rig, developed entirely in-house over the past three years by WDI researchers, dressed to look like a meter-tall Groot.
Actually, he could take on the role of any other similarly sized character. In other words, they don’t want a single character. They want a technological platform for a new class of animatronics. Cameras and sensors will give these robots the ability to make decisions on the go about what to do and say. Custom software will allow animators and engineers to design happy, sad, sneaky behaviors and convey emotions. It is the future.
Pictures: Disney