Disney packed big emotion into a little robot(spectrum.ieee.org)
spectrum.ieee.org
Disney packed big emotion into a little robot
https://spectrum.ieee.org/disney-robot
143 comments
I was part of the pipeline at Disney that looked into operationalizing some of the ideas coming out of Research. I agree that I can't think of any place quite like it. It should also be worth noting that Disney Research is not the same as Imagineering. Research works across all kinds of problems and not just those in the parks.
I was at Disney for close to a decade, and I don't think I could've gotten a better education in how engineering acts in service of the experience the user is having. Disney is really a master of this. Maybe Apple comes close, but I wouldn't know.
I was at Disney for close to a decade, and I don't think I could've gotten a better education in how engineering acts in service of the experience the user is having. Disney is really a master of this. Maybe Apple comes close, but I wouldn't know.
That must have been an incredible experience! Do you have any projects (that you’re allowed to share) that you’re particularly proud of, or that particularly inspired you from your time there?
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You don't happen to know how someone could get access to some amazing research, do you? They released Autoconnect, and it blew my mind. I needed it just yesterday, but I couldn't find it.
https://la.disneyresearch.com/publication/autoconnect/
It’s kind of funny that it gets explored less in real world applications. Like, if that robot was somehow an automated vacuum cleaner, or if someone made a vacuum bot with wall-e “emotions”, I’d buy that over its high-end (and it would probably need to be high-end to justify cost) competition in a heartbeat.
Of course the “easier” solution was to put those funky eye stickers that move on ours. (Sorry I’m not sure what they are called, jiggly eyes?) My daughter also painted little hearths on it and gave it a name. Not for any particular reason, just for the heck of it.
Of course the “easier” solution was to put those funky eye stickers that move on ours. (Sorry I’m not sure what they are called, jiggly eyes?) My daughter also painted little hearths on it and gave it a name. Not for any particular reason, just for the heck of it.
I'm sorry but I'd rather a better vacuum, not one that can make kitten eyes at me.
Meet Henry and his family.
https://www.myhenry.com/machines
https://www.myhenry.com/machines
I'd love to apply to work at Disney Research. Any suggestions or advice?
Disney is something special. For a while, Smalltalk lived there.
Why did you leave?
It may not apply in this case, but a lot of people left rather than get moved from California to Florida during Chapek's tenure as CEO.
With some of the nicknames for one of their buildings in Burbank, I could definitely think of some possible reasons. Hopefully, the reasons for the GP are different than my ideas, and they are much less depressing.
> the kinds of problems that get explored
The uncanny valley problem?
This intrigues me even more.
The uncanny valley problem?
This intrigues me even more.
Disney had an animatronic Lincoln that blew everybody away at the '64 Worlds Fair
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Moments_with_Mr._Lincoln
(Oddly, Phillip K. Dick's We can build you featuring a Lincoln simulacrum was written in 1962, a few year before Disney's Lincoln)
The emotional impact of that Lincoln was carried by the voice actor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dano
working under Disney's direction. As others have pointed out this is an example of where a system like this can be carried by getting a few things really right and faking the other ones well enough.
Disney
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Moments_with_Mr._Lincoln
(Oddly, Phillip K. Dick's We can build you featuring a Lincoln simulacrum was written in 1962, a few year before Disney's Lincoln)
The emotional impact of that Lincoln was carried by the voice actor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dano
working under Disney's direction. As others have pointed out this is an example of where a system like this can be carried by getting a few things really right and faking the other ones well enough.
Disney
> (Oddly, ...
Why would that be odd? It's very common for speculative fiction to have a version of something before it is realized in the "real world".
Why would that be odd? It's very common for speculative fiction to have a version of something before it is realized in the "real world".
I think because it was close enough that Disney probably was already working on it before the book came out and the book came out without (presumably) knowing about what Disney was working on.
Then you have two pop culture references to an animatronic Lincoln being released within two years of each other.
That is odd.
I would agree with you if the book had been out longer before Disney immitated it.
Then you have two pop culture references to an animatronic Lincoln being released within two years of each other.
That is odd.
I would agree with you if the book had been out longer before Disney immitated it.
Now that I think of it, it was close to the 100th anniversary of the civil war and not long after Lincoln’s death so Lincoln must have been on people’s minds. The civil rights movement would be another reason people would be thinking about Lincoln’s legacy too.
Roughly two years makes it unlikely (but not impossible) for the book to have influenced the project.
The book had not even been published at the time. Dick wrote it in 1962, it was serialized in 1969 and published in book form in 1972 so it could not have influenced Disney at all.
I would though think that this Star Trek episode must have been informed by Disney's Lincoln
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Savage_Curtain
even if there is no explict connection drawn (everybody knew about Disney's Lincoln then, it was talked about a lot) It is mentioned specifically in the 1967 film
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_President%27s_Analyst
where the protagonists are being lectured to by an animatronic figure and once character says "He's like Abe Lincoln" so there is some expectation at that time that people would know about him.
I would though think that this Star Trek episode must have been informed by Disney's Lincoln
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Savage_Curtain
even if there is no explict connection drawn (everybody knew about Disney's Lincoln then, it was talked about a lot) It is mentioned specifically in the 1967 film
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_President%27s_Analyst
where the protagonists are being lectured to by an animatronic figure and once character says "He's like Abe Lincoln" so there is some expectation at that time that people would know about him.
Honestly an idea I've had with the recent surge of interest in LLMs is some type of robotic pet. I feel like LLMs can understand human language and images(hopefully soon) to the extent that a pet should be able to. Some kind of robotic dog that can not only express emotions, but understand what you say to it, seems like it would be pretty successful if done correctly.
The nice thing is that it doesn't even have to understand perfectly, a GPT-4 level of vision/language understanding would be perfectly fine. It doesn't have to hold a conversation, just be able to be happy or sad when it should.
The nice thing is that it doesn't even have to understand perfectly, a GPT-4 level of vision/language understanding would be perfectly fine. It doesn't have to hold a conversation, just be able to be happy or sad when it should.
I feel like the big complication at the moment would be getting it to navigate outside of controlled environments. Mainstream tech is getting there (iPhone LIDAR mapping, Meta Quest room scanning) but there's still a lot of dots to connect for a robot far less inherently steady than a Roomba.
What I would bet we'll see at first is some of these little guys in Disney parks, in fenced-off areas or small stages that are kept meticulously clean by staff, where they can interact with visitors without needing to handle all the complications of the real world yet.
What I would bet we'll see at first is some of these little guys in Disney parks, in fenced-off areas or small stages that are kept meticulously clean by staff, where they can interact with visitors without needing to handle all the complications of the real world yet.
You'd be surprised how much a pet can understand.It's more like we can't understand them.They know all our ticks and can sense emotions before even we realize.
Home again home again, jiggity jig! Goooooood evening J.F.!
My dream is to put something like this [https://palm-e.github.io/] into the cheapest quadruped robot.
What is the total addressable market for a Disney/Star Wars branded e-pet droid? Seeing the kids pull a robot with this much 'personality' on a leash made it seem like an obvious use case. The robot wouldn't have to be that cheap to be less expensive than buying and caring for a dog. It has to be as adorable as this robot though.
Dog's don't become superseded by next year's flashy model, and owners who become bored of them can't put them in the loft to gather dust. I suspect the target market will never be the same as real pets. Maybe you could spin those things as positives.
I mean I like tech as much as anyone here but there's something singularly disturbing about giving your kid a robot pet instead of an actual pet.
Fit enough hardware to run a language model into one of these and Disney's got a trillion dollar market here.
This is the move right here. And it doesn't have to be a GPT-4 I-know-absolutely-everything model. I think they could train a <1B param model that is capable of being cute and interactive.
I dunno.
Dialogue is the area where the interactivity of video games falls down completely. I mean, dialogue in a video game can be just as good as the dialogue in a movie but it has to be "on rails" because of the lack of linguistic competence of today's computers.
Even with a much better system it has to be "on rails" in that a video game character will get in trouble if you get it to enough an extended conversation which can be somewhat answered by "people have various ways to set boundaries" and that that of course can be part of the characterization.
Y'all are probably sick of me talking about how Tamamo-no-mae in the game Fate/Extella is the pinnacle of characterization in modern games, but being based on a legendary character who is able to charm people by talking intelligently about any subject who is connected to a photonic crystal computer that has recorded all the Earth's history and having the relationship she does with the protagonist any answer she has to why she doesn't realize her promise would be terribly disappointing.
Dialogue is the area where the interactivity of video games falls down completely. I mean, dialogue in a video game can be just as good as the dialogue in a movie but it has to be "on rails" because of the lack of linguistic competence of today's computers.
Even with a much better system it has to be "on rails" in that a video game character will get in trouble if you get it to enough an extended conversation which can be somewhat answered by "people have various ways to set boundaries" and that that of course can be part of the characterization.
Y'all are probably sick of me talking about how Tamamo-no-mae in the game Fate/Extella is the pinnacle of characterization in modern games, but being based on a legendary character who is able to charm people by talking intelligently about any subject who is connected to a photonic crystal computer that has recorded all the Earth's history and having the relationship she does with the protagonist any answer she has to why she doesn't realize her promise would be terribly disappointing.
Video games have the separate complication, though, that dialogue needs to holistically work with the rest of the plot. There's no such requirement for a very fancy Furby.
I've wanted an evil Teddy Ruxpin that is really evil and wants to lower your utility function and tries really hard to do it (violate the first law of Robotics) but just isn't strong enough to really hurt you. I figure though the bar for creating a catastrophe is not really that high, all it has to do is start a fire.
They could also just call out to web services with cellular internet.
The RTT would need to be very low. It’s hard to have a conversation with 2-3 second pauses.
The long poll in GPT isn't network; it's compute. Unfortunately, the tech probably isn't there yet for this use case.
I am not sure about that! It seems like small models are emerging that are a bit more specific but can be very small, and thus have much lower latency. For example: https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.07759
This might be worked around with a characteristic verbal affectation that makes their utterances initially long-winded. Once the LLM's lag is passed, the proper content may begin to flow. Thinking fast and slow.
Oh, not even. You off-board that hardware into a nearby cluster. No reason the brain has to be in the chassis when radio is so high-bandwidth.
... a Disney of the past would build four of these and just have them wander around EPCOT's Future World, just to set the tone. This Disney will probably purpose them for their Star Wars experiences. Still great to see.
... a Disney of the past would build four of these and just have them wander around EPCOT's Future World, just to set the tone. This Disney will probably purpose them for their Star Wars experiences. Still great to see.
It's not very fun when your batteries last only 10 minutes.
The Achilles' heel of autonomous mobile robots is power storage density.
The Achilles' heel of autonomous mobile robots is power storage density.
Basically an "Ashley Too"
Whether a toy market is a trillion dollars is questionable.
Whether a toy market is a trillion dollars is questionable.
It’s not a toy market. It’s a semi-independent nanny/babysitter market.
That is a blacker mirror than I thought!
We could have a Johnny Five! That would be super cool.
Or an AT-ST to do home patrol. Beware of squirrels with logs and rope though.
You know, that could make a good scifi story. Home maintenance and security droids lead to an evolutionary arms race with urban wildlife...
sounds like "masons rats" by neal asher. which got a pretty good adaptation by Netflix.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt20239370/
Disney Imagineering (is it still called that?) always seemed fascinating when you looked at it as part of a company like Disney. Like it doesn't really make sense to exist within Disney if you think about it too hard but it also is critical to what makes Disney... Disney.
I am always fascinated ever time they release a research video (I remember the one talking about snow simulation for Frozen).
It seems like it could be a fascinating place to work and (from the outside) seems unique given their priorities. It isn't to release a consumer product, a new b2b project, its to support some other narrative purpose.
I do find it fairly fascinating that at one point in the video I was watching it and figured it had to be CGI. I wonder if that is just still not used to this on a regular basis.
Side Note: This robot is CUTE and I want one.
I am always fascinated ever time they release a research video (I remember the one talking about snow simulation for Frozen).
It seems like it could be a fascinating place to work and (from the outside) seems unique given their priorities. It isn't to release a consumer product, a new b2b project, its to support some other narrative purpose.
I do find it fairly fascinating that at one point in the video I was watching it and figured it had to be CGI. I wonder if that is just still not used to this on a regular basis.
Side Note: This robot is CUTE and I want one.
The focus on robotics research starts to make more sense when you dig into the financials.
Disney’s FY2022 operating income was $12.7B. $7.9B (!) of that comes from theme parks. That’s 65%.
Everything else Disney does (Pixar movies, Disney movies, Star Wars movies, television, streaming, touring musicals, merchandise, partnerships, IP licensing) is the remaining 45%.
Robotics is essential to the parks.
Disney’s FY2022 operating income was $12.7B. $7.9B (!) of that comes from theme parks. That’s 65%.
Everything else Disney does (Pixar movies, Disney movies, Star Wars movies, television, streaming, touring musicals, merchandise, partnerships, IP licensing) is the remaining 45%.
Robotics is essential to the parks.
So Disney is a theme park company that produces very expensive ads that people pay to see.
I think that is even underselling it some. The theme parks don't exist without the content. With normal ads it's still possible to enjoy the product without being advertised to first.
That's why I don't care one bit about box office stats for any Marvel or Star Wars movie. It could literally sell 0 tickets and still be worth it for the downstream effects on merchandising and promotional tie-ins.
That's why I don't care one bit about box office stats for any Marvel or Star Wars movie. It could literally sell 0 tickets and still be worth it for the downstream effects on merchandising and promotional tie-ins.
35%, oops.
> Like it doesn't really make sense to exist within Disney if you think about it too hard but it also is critical to what makes Disney... Disney.
Disney himself was a huge fan of technology and both him and the CEOs after him recognized that there's a part of the industry they're in (entertainment) that requires secrecy; literal "magic" is mostly "things you can do that other people don't know how to do." So they keep that research in-house because they want first-mover advantage on illusions, effects, and experiences that nobody else can do.
That's the best way to conceptualize Imagineering: it's a magic factory. In that sense, absolutely essential core-business-model stuff for the park-and-show entertainment sector of the company.
(Some of the more recent CEOs didn't grasp this aspect and actually did outsource some of the work done in the past half-decade. I'm going to be real interested to see what the park scene looks like in the Orlando area in the next decade or so as the technologies third-party vendors developed on Disney's behalf diffuse directly into Disney's competition).
Disney himself was a huge fan of technology and both him and the CEOs after him recognized that there's a part of the industry they're in (entertainment) that requires secrecy; literal "magic" is mostly "things you can do that other people don't know how to do." So they keep that research in-house because they want first-mover advantage on illusions, effects, and experiences that nobody else can do.
That's the best way to conceptualize Imagineering: it's a magic factory. In that sense, absolutely essential core-business-model stuff for the park-and-show entertainment sector of the company.
(Some of the more recent CEOs didn't grasp this aspect and actually did outsource some of the work done in the past half-decade. I'm going to be real interested to see what the park scene looks like in the Orlando area in the next decade or so as the technologies third-party vendors developed on Disney's behalf diffuse directly into Disney's competition).
Looks like it's based on the BD-1 droid from the jedi fallen order franchise: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/BD-1
He is, in fact, adorable.
He is, in fact, adorable.
hah right? It's not even subtle with how similar it can be. It just needs to be able to jump on my shoulder in a few generations.
Like ok I get it, Disney isn't going to paint up a prototype or reveal too much of their plans with something like this likely in the works years in advance.
This wouldn't be the first time they showed a prototype that was rather clearly for a specific purpose (like the spider man flying robot)
But uh... that is 100% Star Wars.
Like ok I get it, Disney isn't going to paint up a prototype or reveal too much of their plans with something like this likely in the works years in advance.
This wouldn't be the first time they showed a prototype that was rather clearly for a specific purpose (like the spider man flying robot)
But uh... that is 100% Star Wars.
Thank you for remembering BD-1. It was frustrating to not be able to remember that droid's designation.
Absolutely. I like when the video shows it "staggering" off when they pull the rug/curtain away slowly.
Now, if it could vaccuum a floor, I'd buy one!
Now, if it could vaccuum a floor, I'd buy one!
If you watch the video linked in the article he even beeps like BD-1! I love it!
On the other hand Walt Disney was a creative maniac with a large fortune and desire to invent theme parks. Imagineering is the one valve in the heart of Disney.
I agree 100%, based on the desire for theme parks it fits.
But from the outside looking in what is "Disney". I would wager that for the vast majority of people Disney is Mickey Mouse, Frozen, Lion King, etc. basically media. Obviously I would say that people would also say the parks. But I doubt the word "Tech" is anywhere in the vast majority of people's opinion on what Disney is.
It is wild to think that behind what is a media company, is an organization with strong engineering talent. I mean it seems like that the robot engineering specifically rivals most of what else is out there.
That isn't saying there are not more advanced robotics, Boston Dynamics projects are a big example.
But there is also something to be said that this is probably going to be in a park in just a few years, if not sooner. It isn't going to sit in research stage forever.
But it is a really weird timeline that Disney is associated with advanced robotics and other crazy things that Disney Imagineering does.
But from the outside looking in what is "Disney". I would wager that for the vast majority of people Disney is Mickey Mouse, Frozen, Lion King, etc. basically media. Obviously I would say that people would also say the parks. But I doubt the word "Tech" is anywhere in the vast majority of people's opinion on what Disney is.
It is wild to think that behind what is a media company, is an organization with strong engineering talent. I mean it seems like that the robot engineering specifically rivals most of what else is out there.
That isn't saying there are not more advanced robotics, Boston Dynamics projects are a big example.
But there is also something to be said that this is probably going to be in a park in just a few years, if not sooner. It isn't going to sit in research stage forever.
But it is a really weird timeline that Disney is associated with advanced robotics and other crazy things that Disney Imagineering does.
Disney corp. and their brilliant animators and technicians invented various parts of animated films during an intense period of RnD, both technical and creative. This culminated in Snow White which was the first animated feature film (afaik) and it was a huge hit.
Hollywood was the Silicon Valley of the 20s and 30s. They were using and inventing cutting edge tech!
Hollywood was the Silicon Valley of the 20s and 30s. They were using and inventing cutting edge tech!
Quick aside.
I love applying this to our technology companies. Sure, we get products like Google Search and Gmail and Facebook and Messenger and Instagram and Tiktok. Everybody calls them tech companies. Like everyone assumes Disney is media. But in reality they are ad companies. Like Disney is a theme park company.
I love applying this to our technology companies. Sure, we get products like Google Search and Gmail and Facebook and Messenger and Instagram and Tiktok. Everybody calls them tech companies. Like everyone assumes Disney is media. But in reality they are ad companies. Like Disney is a theme park company.
[deleted]
Disney has always been on the cutting edge of technology. They priced the first feature length animated film. Created the "multi-plan camera" to create depth, they partnered with and later acquired Pixar who pioneered computer animation.
If you ignore the head part, it looks very much like one of these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_(Star_Wars)#All_Terrain...
Or this one! https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/BD_unit
This was my immediate thought, and this is probably what they were going for.
Yeah, I think when they do star wars shows/movies they seem to prefer practical droids and aliens when they can do them convincingly. They did do a BD in the past in Mando, but I think it was CG. Maybe they are working towards a practical BD for a future series.
Mark my words, Behavior Authoring will be the Prompt Engineering of the future with no looking back
Robotic platforms are a few iterations away from it at most
Robotic platforms are a few iterations away from it at most
I'm not sure I see what you mean with that? Prompt engineering used to be crucial for getting good results, however with each successive iteration it has become less and less relevant.
> I'm not sure I see what you mean with that?
Prompt engineering is an extremely simple form of behavior authoring. I'm curious about how you arrived at the conclusion that newer models make prompts and prompting strategies less relevant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior_authoring
Prompt engineering is an extremely simple form of behavior authoring. I'm curious about how you arrived at the conclusion that newer models make prompts and prompting strategies less relevant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior_authoring
An example of what I mean with prompt engineering becoming less relevant as models get better is quoted at [0]:
> Researchers from Microsoft tested GPT-4 on medical problems and found "that GPT-4, without any specialized prompt crafting, exceeds the passing score on USMLE by over 20 points and outperforms earlier general-purpose models (GPT-3.5) as well as models specifically fine-tuned on medical knowledge (Med-PaLM, a prompt-tuned version of Flan-PaLM 540B).
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPT-4#Medical_applications
> Researchers from Microsoft tested GPT-4 on medical problems and found "that GPT-4, without any specialized prompt crafting, exceeds the passing score on USMLE by over 20 points and outperforms earlier general-purpose models (GPT-3.5) as well as models specifically fine-tuned on medical knowledge (Med-PaLM, a prompt-tuned version of Flan-PaLM 540B).
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPT-4#Medical_applications
Or AI will just get to the point that you will describe the Behavior you want in very simple language, maybe referencing certain known characters and it will do all the hard work for you.
This is precisely what I’m suggesting
That’s a pretty concise description of behavior authoring that functionally work
That’s a pretty concise description of behavior authoring that functionally work
I wonder if anyone recalls the little worker robots in the 1972 movie "Silent Running". [1]
I don't know what it was about those fellows but I felt emotionally attached to them. It was not that they had any visible means of conveying emotions. They just went about their tasks quietly and diligently.
For some reason they pulled at my heart strings. It was quite heart wrenching to see them destroyed in the last part of the movie.
[1] - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067756/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
I don't know what it was about those fellows but I felt emotionally attached to them. It was not that they had any visible means of conveying emotions. They just went about their tasks quietly and diligently.
For some reason they pulled at my heart strings. It was quite heart wrenching to see them destroyed in the last part of the movie.
[1] - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067756/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Huey, Dewey, and Louie, named after the Disney characters (Donald Duck's nephews).
The movie was made by Douglas Trumbull, otherwise famous for his special effects contributions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Trumbull
The movie was made by Douglas Trumbull, otherwise famous for his special effects contributions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Trumbull
For whatever reason, it bugs me that this robot doesn't have a name (or at least the name isn't mentioned in the article)
> As far as this robot goes, the character doesn’t have an official name, and Disney isn’t ready to comment on where we might see it. But based on how it looks and sounds, we have some guesses.
Yup
Yup
In the embedded video, there's a part where they are pulling a rug, and I'm so confused about this very small jump he does when he transitions from letting the rug get pulled to standing on the floor [0].
It feels like it knows that it has to do it this way, but it's something you wouldn't expect from any other robot, like Boston Dynamic's Spot or Atlas. They'd know that they have to recompute after the fact that they're partially on the ground where one leg still gets pulled away while the other one is already on fixed ground.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cfIm06tcfA&t=14s
It feels like it knows that it has to do it this way, but it's something you wouldn't expect from any other robot, like Boston Dynamic's Spot or Atlas. They'd know that they have to recompute after the fact that they're partially on the ground where one leg still gets pulled away while the other one is already on fixed ground.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cfIm06tcfA&t=14s
This is a great question that enticed me to watch that moment a fair few number of times. I’ll provide a lame, handwavy explanation and hope to be corrected.
The right foot was on the floor while the left was on the rug, which was in motion and and raised delta the thickness of the rug. In such a mode, the bot is inclined to prefer the stable right leg and lifts the left leg. (I wonder if it can balance on one leg indefinitely? If not, that makes this sequence even more impressive.) Putting the center of gravity over the stable leg increases the probability of the bot staying upright. As opposed to leaning or shifting weight with both legs remaining aground, lifting the unstable leg entirely from the moving surface maximizes the goal of staying upright by minimizing the force of friction. I also think the rug was jerked at just the right moment such that it maximized the visual impression.
This explanation avoids the need for the bot to predict visually the impact of the rug pull, since the rug pull was not instantaneous and the bot’s reaction came after the rug pull began.
This is a very impressive demo. I do think they nailed the goal of expressively and emotion.
The right foot was on the floor while the left was on the rug, which was in motion and and raised delta the thickness of the rug. In such a mode, the bot is inclined to prefer the stable right leg and lifts the left leg. (I wonder if it can balance on one leg indefinitely? If not, that makes this sequence even more impressive.) Putting the center of gravity over the stable leg increases the probability of the bot staying upright. As opposed to leaning or shifting weight with both legs remaining aground, lifting the unstable leg entirely from the moving surface maximizes the goal of staying upright by minimizing the force of friction. I also think the rug was jerked at just the right moment such that it maximized the visual impression.
This explanation avoids the need for the bot to predict visually the impact of the rug pull, since the rug pull was not instantaneous and the bot’s reaction came after the rug pull began.
This is a very impressive demo. I do think they nailed the goal of expressively and emotion.
It looks like the same corrective behavior as at the very beginning of the video when the robot is pushed sideways. It does a series of jumps to keep itself upright when its right leg moves too close to the center of gravity. Angular momentum of the body probably plays a role too.
Have some coworkers that used to work for Disney. I hear most left since the California to Florida transition. It’s a shame because the problems sound so interesting but I also hear the pay is very mediocre.
There was no florida to california transition. That got axed by the drama surrounding the florida governor and disney pulled out:
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/18/disney-scraps-lake-nona-flor....
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/18/disney-scraps-lake-nona-flor....
It never came into fruition suddenly but I believe it was always the planned agenda prior. Which makes sense to change your job if you expect that it wouldn’t be in the area you want to live in the long run.
Feels like Wall-E is coming to life
Slightly off topic but isn't this sentence wrong?
It has a four-degree-of-freedom head (able to look up, down, around, and tilt),
I'm not seeing any way that up/down, left/right, tilt-left/tilt-right are 4 degrees of freedom.
It seems like that has to be either 3 degrees of freedom or 6.
How can up and down be two separate degrees of freedom, but lefr and right only be a single degree?
Not my area is expertise, but I can't see any way for the math to line up.
It has a four-degree-of-freedom head (able to look up, down, around, and tilt),
I'm not seeing any way that up/down, left/right, tilt-left/tilt-right are 4 degrees of freedom.
It seems like that has to be either 3 degrees of freedom or 6.
How can up and down be two separate degrees of freedom, but lefr and right only be a single degree?
Not my area is expertise, but I can't see any way for the math to line up.
I think it can move the whole head up and down ( as a whole unit) as well as tilt it forward and backward ( as well as left an right ).
So we got four: lift head, rotate head, tilt left/right and tilt front/back?
So we got four: lift head, rotate head, tilt left/right and tilt front/back?
Imagine the Military getting hold of is and creating an adorable killing machine voiced by an AI copy of John Ratzenberger.
I assume (hope?) this is one of the cases where an advanced robot is being designed without military use in mind.
OMG between this stuff and AI advances we are so close to having household robots!!! Exciting times.
Looks like it's a slightly overweight BD-1 from the jedi fallen order games. Awesome.
Definitely reminds me of Wall.e
It's pretty much BD-1 from Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order.
Looks that way, but maybe he needs some ozempic, looks like he put on a freshman five ;)
Remember Vector from Anki, which had some former Pixar animators working on it.
Quite a cool little character, but like everything else, is it a bit too late to the table? It will soon be replaced by a prompt I guess? "Generate me a cute Disney Robot video..."
Much cuter than the military parkour robot we saw the other day. Both impressive though!
I am really impressed by this work. If only Disney needed an empirical physicist...
Very nice, I am so relieved that there looks to be a fine technical solution to the eventual extinction of so many animals. It looks like our zoos will have a perfectly great robotic solution!
It looks like BD-1 from Jedi: Fallen Order
I think i know what my next side project is.
It's so classic Disney animation - way overacted. It's the pre-Marvel, pre-Pixar Disney cliche of the annoying small-animal sidekick.
nice, now any pointers on how someone can make something similar in a smaller form factor?
I'd be very tempted to try and run a gear train and cable system so that the majority of the weight was near center of mass. If you're going small enough, there are servos that pull a few oz and could easily manipulate fishing line in tubes.
Hardware is more or less half a robot dog, but the cuteness is in the software. Closest open source cute animatronics I've seen is Stack-chan based on M5Stack/ESP32, but it's still far off from Disney cute.
1: https://github.com/meganetaaan/stack-chan
1: https://github.com/meganetaaan/stack-chan
This was the comment that made me go back and watch the video.
Interesting.
It of course has a lot of human elements to get at that association. The antennas as ears. Having eye-likes that can close. The tilting of the head is very good looking and I must say it holds itself well.
Interesting.
It of course has a lot of human elements to get at that association. The antennas as ears. Having eye-likes that can close. The tilting of the head is very good looking and I must say it holds itself well.
Boston Dynamics robots and its clones probably has more axes, if that’s what you want. Dynamixel sells servos. Sony does small batches of robots every five years or so. ABB and Kuka makes tons of robotic arms and they’re available new and used. Bellabots(just an off brand Roomba, almost literally) are everywhere.
Oh, and Aldebaran Pepper are easily found being sent to recycling. Because the onboard Wi-Fi has unfortunate tendency of showing early faults, of course. Totally not because it’s not about having human features.
Apparently the software used to convert CG animations into motions for this guy is part of novel development too. That’s what allows him to have these hallmark Disney movements. Are there open source or hackable alternatives to that? To what…
Oh, and Aldebaran Pepper are easily found being sent to recycling. Because the onboard Wi-Fi has unfortunate tendency of showing early faults, of course. Totally not because it’s not about having human features.
Apparently the software used to convert CG animations into motions for this guy is part of novel development too. That’s what allows him to have these hallmark Disney movements. Are there open source or hackable alternatives to that? To what…
Expect 95% of the cost to be the actuators.
slowhadoken(2)
Great now whatever is copyright eligible in there is lost to progress.
No qualia no emotion
They are not claiming that it experiences emotion. The point is that it's movements are very emotive.
Is that to say there is only the display of emotion?
I am curious if the two robot monkeys forget all about the history of the ladder.
Will the future not-robot monkeys discover the truth?
I am always amazed that I am not upset at the computer but at my failure to operate it in a way to get the desired outcome. The ability to generate emotion exists within the imageo and not the observed or learned.
I am curious if the two robot monkeys forget all about the history of the ladder.
Will the future not-robot monkeys discover the truth?
I am always amazed that I am not upset at the computer but at my failure to operate it in a way to get the desired outcome. The ability to generate emotion exists within the imageo and not the observed or learned.
> The ability to generate emotion exists within the imageo and not the observed
I was thinking the exact same thing while pondering the parents assertion.
Qualia is just the notion of being something. The classic example is a bat: what is the qualitative experience of being nearly blind, but having wings and a highly accurate echolocation system?
Plants too have qualia. What is it like to be a tree. To feel the nurture of the sun, the change in seasons, and to heal a broken branch.
The qualia of a stone is less exciting, but we can still imagine being a dense pack of minerals. Perhaps rolling down a mountain and losing some weight. Suddenly finding ourselves on the ocean floor, drifting aimlessly, while providing cover and nutrition to all sorts of life. After staying stationary for thousands of years.
That rock has seen things, man!
Down at the atom level things get more excited. What is the qualitative experience of interacting with other atoms? Or a photon? Of being entangled? State transitions?
Anyway. It's clear to me that this robot absolutely has qualia. I can imagine what it's like to be be a circuit board, with an operating system, a bunch of sensors, a neural processing engine, and a hard shell. How it feels.
It makes me appreciate being human more. But also evokes empathy for that adorable lump of silicon, metals, and plastics. Don't let the GP comment bring you down, little one. You are perfect just as you are.
I was thinking the exact same thing while pondering the parents assertion.
Qualia is just the notion of being something. The classic example is a bat: what is the qualitative experience of being nearly blind, but having wings and a highly accurate echolocation system?
Plants too have qualia. What is it like to be a tree. To feel the nurture of the sun, the change in seasons, and to heal a broken branch.
The qualia of a stone is less exciting, but we can still imagine being a dense pack of minerals. Perhaps rolling down a mountain and losing some weight. Suddenly finding ourselves on the ocean floor, drifting aimlessly, while providing cover and nutrition to all sorts of life. After staying stationary for thousands of years.
That rock has seen things, man!
Down at the atom level things get more excited. What is the qualitative experience of interacting with other atoms? Or a photon? Of being entangled? State transitions?
Anyway. It's clear to me that this robot absolutely has qualia. I can imagine what it's like to be be a circuit board, with an operating system, a bunch of sensors, a neural processing engine, and a hard shell. How it feels.
It makes me appreciate being human more. But also evokes empathy for that adorable lump of silicon, metals, and plastics. Don't let the GP comment bring you down, little one. You are perfect just as you are.
Perhaps qualia is an abstractive interpretation of the internal state that generates emotional expression
Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck.
But is actually a Disney animatronic name Daffy
Prove it doesn't have qualia
It has been proven that some truths can not be proven, so it’s not that interesting of a requirement.
If qualia is required for emotion, then the appearance of emotion can be evidence of qualia. Saying it requires qualia to truly be emotion is putting Descartes in front of the horse.
A drawing of emotion probably does not have emotion.
Qualia is the safety hatch some philosophers use to escape from losing arguments.
The impossible parts of problems could be solved by visual sleight of hand or some artistic trick, leaving you open to explore and solve some really interesting application specific problems with technology. The much, much harder part is making any of this research work robust and compelling enough to actually show in the parks.