June 10, 2018

Disney robots are amazing


Without any doubt, the most sophisticated robots are produced by Disney. While surfing on the web, I've found two recent example, at first a new recording of “ican the robot” in Tomorrowland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRuK58QKo70 and secondly a so called “pre-show robot” at the Epcot centre, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VynOJSMo50
Like all redordings of Disney robots the exact specifications are unknown. That means the technical background is a secret and it is more a trick but not science. But nevertheless, the movement of the animatronics storytelling machines are amazing and the audiance feels like in the famous movie “A.I. (2001)”
In the case of the “ican robot” is one thing remarkable. Every time, a visitor is touching the machine from the backwards or on the arm in a demanding way, the human companion of the robot in the blue-disney shirt is preventing further actions. That means, Disney doesn't want, that the users are touching the machine and interrupt the presentation. This can be predicted by sure: a user is touching a robot, and 1 second later the watchdog is stopping this behavior. It seems, that there are two possible ways to interact with ican, the first one is the required way, that means to laugh about the robot jokes, and to play with him. The other – not wanted behavior – is to disrupt the robot-show. For example by touching the machine from the back, to block his movement in the crowd, and to recognize the robot as a silly machine. Such interaction mode is not wanted.