
Disney’s flying robot stunt double can pose just like a superhero (2018) - Tomte
https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/30/17517512/disney-robot-stunt-double-animatronic-superhero
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MontagFTB
“One day at Disney” is a show on Disney+. It’s a collection of shorts
describing various jobs within the company. One of them is on this team,
discussing this very robot. It has some additional footage and depth not
covered in this article. It was my favorite episode of the series.

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xwdv
The stunts in the video all seem like they could be done by a human, I was
expecting something more like a light weight humanoid bot with some
quadrocopter type propellers that allowed it to actually fly and float through
the air. For instance, you could have Ironman flying high over the park and
make it look convincing, especially with properly placed speakers.

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ReactiveJelly
It might not look right if a stiff breeze blew Iron Man out of the park

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xwdv
Couldn’t the same thing happen to one of these bots? Blown off their
trajectory

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dbcurtis
If you want to try this at home, check out MIT 6.832 Underactuated Robotics,
taught by Russ Tedrake. Lectures available on Youtube.

Sumulating systems similar to the acrobat robot are homeworks. I think all tbe
tools are available open source.

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fenwick67
Speaking for myself, I would need the fundamentals of animatronics first
(like, if I'm making a simple animatronic puppet, how do I design mechanisms
to open and close the mouth or turn the neck?). Assuming I am well versed in
control systems, electronics, and have a solid grasp of torque, gear ratios
etc, where would I go from there? Under-actuated robotics are like a step 2.
Hell, even robotics 101 seems like a step 2, since it focuses on the control
systems quite a lot, I'm talking about "how do I build it?" and "what is a
four-bar linkage good for?". These courses always focus on modelling a real
robot and controlling it, I'm interested in designing the mechanics of the
thing.

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dbcurtis
Fair enough. 6.832 is an advanced course.

Building simple kits is always a good way to get going. You learn by seeing
how someone else solved the problem, and add that to your bag of tricks. The
Pololu Romi chassis is not a terrible place to start. The wheels have (kinda
coarse) encoders, so you can at least get some decent control going. Even
simpler robots can be built by modifying hobby servos for continuous rotation.
Pick a simple challenge, like "Drive around on a table without falling off.",
that is a decent robot "Hello, World!". (And it isn't as easy as it sounds.)

If there is a robot club near by, check it out.

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jeremymcanally
I think this is going to end up being one of the coolest additions to the
parks in recent years. If you haven't seen, they're applying this at
Disneyland in the Avengers Campus area to have a "live action" Spiderman
flying overhead: [https://www.disneytouristblog.com/stuntronics-spider-man-
ave...](https://www.disneytouristblog.com/stuntronics-spider-man-avengers-
campus-marvel-land/)

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scoot
Same videos as the original post

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jeremymcanally
There is an additional video with the robot dressed as Spiderman.

Did you even click the link?

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iunternik
Does this mean that robots like this will be cheaper to produce than CGI?

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gumby
Probably not, even though you get a lot of physics “computation” for free,
simply because you’re managing physical stuff that gets dirty, jams, needs
lubrication, can be stolen etc.

OTOH it’s the only way to do headset-free AR which is impossible with cgi!

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pjmorris
FTA, "falling with style"

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reptation
Funny, was recently at Disneyworld and impressed by the live-action Cinderella
during the nightly fireworks/lights show. Was she a robot?

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Cthulhu_
If it's a show, it's likely a real person; if it's a ride, more likely to be
an animatronic.

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dehrmann
My guess is that they want to use something like this in a life-action stunt
show to augment human actors.

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amelius
Yes, it is possible to do this.

