Disney Developing A Robot That Mimics People's Actions & Movements

Disney's network of research laboratories is working on a robot designed to mimic people's actions and movements. The machine, which will be run by a human operator, is touted by the company as a precise telepresence robot.

Human Operator

Disney Research's latest robot symbolizes the company's technological innovation, CNET reported. For the technology to work, the robot's camera streams a video of its surroundings to its human operator, who wears a head-mounted display that seems to be an Oculus virtual reality headset.

Serving as the human operator's eyes is the camera mounted on the robot. It then copies the movements of its human operator and in turn, the person is capable of feeling what the robot is touching through the haptics feedback.

In a report, researchers said the hydraulic robot can carry out smooth and fast movements "while maintaining back drivability and bidirectional force reflection." Through haptics feedback, the robot has the ability to handle fragile objects, perform accurate movements and interact with people, CNET wrote.

Some of the motions the robot can do are cracking an egg open, touching a girl's cheeks and inserting a string through a needle. You can watch the robot in action in the video below.

More Developments Underway

Jessica Hodgins, vice president of Disney Research and a professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, said they plan to further improve the robot's abilities. They are working on making the robot automated and not controlled by a person, but with the same level of mechanical performance, Business Standard reported.

John P. Whitney, who worked on the robot's development and an assistant professor at Northeastern University, said a robot's joint usually contains two hydraulic cylinders that are secured against each other. Disney's new robot, however, relies on air-filled cylinders paired with water-filled ones, providing preload force. The robot's joint can then move in opposing directions with only half of the large hydraulic lines being used.

Disney's Gravity-Defying Robot

In December, Disney unveiled a robot that defies gravity—it can scale walls without any difficulty at all. VertiGo, a shared project of the Disney Research Zurich and Switzerland university ETH Zurich, is capable of defying gravity because of its lightweight carbon fiber body and two tiltable propellers, according to a report from Quartz.

The front propeller enables the robot to flip onto a wall from the ground. The rear propeller shoves VertiGo onto the wall and allows the robot to traverse across walls even on those with bumpy surfaces.