ANAHEIM, Calif. – Disney Imagingeers unveiled their latest robotic project at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland.
Last week, Disney and Star Wars fans went into a frenzy after seeing the three charismatic, free roaming droid robots marching, and even dancing, in the land of Batuu.
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Disney Imagineering said the “droids in training” were there during a one-day “playtest,” seeing how guests interacted with them in the park.
“A part of Disney’s robotic character pipeline, Imagineers have teamed-up with animators to design characters capable of great balance and highly expressive motions,” Disney Imagineering explained on its Instagram page.
The droids, standing on two legs, blinked their eyes, interacted with guests, walked around – and at times, even got angry with red eyes.
Disney fans overall appeared to love the new additions with one person commenting on social media saying it “brings you closer to the that feel of being in the Star Wars universe.” Disney Imagineering said the new robots were designed in just months through the use of procedural animation, modular hardware and reinforcement learning.
“These droids in training can imitate our distinctive motion – that’s the secret sauce to making them work so quickly,” said Moritz Bächer, associate lab director at Disney Research. “They can emote, dance, they can walk on uneven terrain, they can balance – they’re really robust.”
The history of audio-animatronic robots is nothing new for the Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney himself helped bring many audio-animatronics to life for audiences at Disneyland, and many are still in use today including ones at the Enchanted Tiki Room and the timeless classic, Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln.
Over the past couple decades, the evolution and technological advances of creating new robotic characters has ramped up for Walt Disney Imagineering.
Teams have pulled back the curtain, showing off some of the popular characters that audiences might see in future projects including Groot from Marvel Studio’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” and a Judy Hopps prototype from the hit 2016 Walt Disney Animation Studio’s film, “Zootopia.” In 2021, at Disney’s California Adventure, Disney Imagineers wowed guests during the opening of Marvel’s Avengers Campus. Imagineers built stunt double animatronics to help Spider-Man appear as though he is flying high over the W.E.B. building in the newly-themed area.
On Wednesday night, a picture was posted saying Chief Creative Executive of Walt Disney Imagineering, Bruce Vaughn, shared key learnings and next steps about the droids with Disney CEO, Bob Iger and Disney Parks Experiences and Products Chairman Josh D’Amaro.
While Disney has not said if these new droid robots will return, or be placed in any Disney Park, it’s certainly a testament to some of the creative ideas coming in the future.
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