Disney has released a stunning video showing the research and development behind the creation of its BD-1 droid, a bipedal robot whose unveiling we reported on last year. Based in the Star Wars universe, BD-1 presented a number of challenges for the Disney robotics team, namely that it must present a ton of personality without speaking. In the video above, watch how the Disney robotics team tackled the challenge, from conception, to development of its motion control system, to the final droid.
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From Disney: “Legged robots have achieved impressive feats in dynamic locomotion in challenging unstructured terrain. However, in entertainment applications, the design and control of these robots face additional challenges in appealing to human audiences. This work aims to unify expressive, artist-directed motions and robust dynamic mobility for legged robots. To this end, we introduce a new bipedal robot, designed with a focus on character-driven mechanical features. We present a reinforcement learning-based control architecture to robustly execute artistic motions conditioned on command signals. During runtime, these command signals are generated by an animation engine which composes and blends between multiple animation sources. Finally, an intuitive operator interface enables real-time show performances with the robot. The complete system results in a believable robotic character, and paves the way for enhanced human-robot engagement in various contexts, in entertainment robotics and beyond.”
