Disney’s R&D labs, commonly known as its Imagineering team, does some extremely impressive and expressive things with robots. It’s made mechanical stunt doubles, lifelike alien Na’vi, and, uh, this skinless weirdo. But the company’s latest creation looks like it quite literally walked out of a Disney movie. It’s a bipedal Groot that can amble about tether-free. As Disney’s Pinocchio would put it: he’s got no strings to hold him down.
With Project Kiki, Imagineering set out to create a robotic actor that could one day interact with Disney theme parks guests and make them feel like they’re face-to-face with their favorite characters. When the team started work on the project, there weren’t any robots up to that task, so they began making their own. The majority of Project Kiwi’s components are custom-made, and it includes some clever design features. For instance, it has a hollow skeleton that allows circulating air to cool its motors and actuators.
While the robot looks like a breakthrough in many ways, don’t expect to see it at a Disney park anytime soon. Imagineering told TechCrunch it still has a lot of work to do before Project Kiwi leaves the lab. One upcoming area of focus is a new set of actuators that will make the robot better equipped to handle sudden interactions, such as a kid running up to hug it, that could topple it over. The team is also working on a new sensor suite that will allow Kiwi to better understand the world and identify human faces. Battery life is another area where the robot could do better. The current model can go about 45 minutes on a single charge. All of that to say, you can safely wait to plan that next trip to Disney World.
