News Tech Crunch: WDI Builds Free Roaming Bipedal Animatronic Groot With “Project Kiwi”

[themarchhare]

Honestly, this is sad because under a well-funded Disney, this would be AMAZING, but under current Disney, I doubt we'll ever see him in the parks.

The cuts are really killing the magic.

 

[Surferboy567]

Could easily be in the pre-show though. They have a Rocket AA in the pre-show at DCA.

Exactly what I thought.

 

[corran horn]

Gah, remember that sick freaking dragon? I had such high hopes for that thing.

yup

 

[TikibirdLand]

It’s truly a shame. For a company so desperate to compete with UNI, something like this is a real differentiator because only Disney could do something like this. The UNI guys just krazy glue a bunch of crap onto a Boston Dynamics robot and call it a day.

At least theirs was out in public.

 

[ThatMouse]

This is cool! But you know the stage show will be a 2 minute "I am Groot" gag. I really hope Groot learns to talk! lol!

 

[MrPromey]

Honestly, this is sad because under a well-funded Disney, this would be AMAZING, but under current Disney, I doubt we'll ever see him in the parks.

The cuts are really killing the magic.

Meh, it'll probably show up for the grand opening of Cosmic Rewind. Might stick around intermittently for a month or so after... Then we'll probably get to see footage of it in Japan where they're willing to pay the money or in China where they're trying to get attention.

I don't see WDW footing the bill to keep something like that around.

 

[erasure fan1]

Well, it's genuinely awesome. Therefore there's zero chance it becomes a consistent feature of Walt Disney world. Lol

 

[havoc315]

Very cool. Still many years away from everyday practical applications... and I doubt theme parks will be among the first applications but maybe. 20 years from now, Disney theme parks may really be WestWorld.

 

[raymusiccity]

I saw them both.... once. Also Remy (lifesive not costumed character) greeting guests in France.

WDI can do it, Parks don’t want to pay for it. (Also see talking Mickey).

....and the late, lamented 'PUSH'

 

[JoeCamel]

This is "free roaming"? I see a tether and a fall protection lanyard

 

[J4546]

damn, that video makes me even more excited for the spiderman flying robot coming to CA as well. But damn, those boston dynamics robots they show that are just dancing around on 1 foot....thats insane. We are so close to robots that can look like us and run around lol

 

[Brer Oswald]

This is "free roaming"? I see a tether and a fall protection lanyard

Maybe not. But even in a controlled environment, that’s pretty impressive

 

[ppete1975]

this gets us closer to what ive always thought disney should do... more realistic meet and greets..... think about a 2 foot winnie the pooh, a bolt, a more cartoon pluto, the aristocats...
So many of the meet and greet characters are not supposed to be 6 foot tall.
The first venelope still gives me nightmares... (shes better now though).. but she should be a little kid not 6 foot tall. Remember the horror that was figmentzilla or was that figzilla.

 

[Magenta Panther]

Pity that this experimental tech is being wasted on a non-Disney second-tier Marvel character. Still, it's pretty cool. I've often argued for a "life-sized" interactive Mickey Mouse AA to greet guests, rather than a 5-foot human wearing a giant mouse head. This new tech could make that happen. A "life-sized" Donald Duck would be awesome too. Unfortunately, as others have mentioned here, these are the Imagineers that once came up with a truly spectacular flying dragon - then flew it once and retired it. They retired Lucky the Dinosaur too. AND they won't fix the Yeti. So I refuse to get too excited over this...

 

[Magicart87]

I've often argued for a "life-sized" interactive Mickey Mouse AA to greet guests, rather than a 5-foot human wearing a giant mouse head. This new tech could make that happen. A "life-sized" Donald Duck would be awesome too.

Pretty sure that's the plan.

 

[Magicart87]

The patent deets:

Legged High-dexterity Self-balancing Capable Robot Actor Patent Application

U.S. Patent Application 20200369333 for Legged High-dexterity Self-balancing Capable Robot Actor

uspto.report

 

[RSoxNo1]

So is that the New Fantaslyand dragon?

 

[spock8113]

Where the heck is Lucky? (not a reply, but a question)

 

[VicariousCorpse]

This one is just dressed up as Groot for a benchmark test for believability. It won't be coming to any parks for quite a while.

Where the heck is Lucky? (not a reply, but a question)

He been at Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale since 2015.

 

[Piebald]

As a m&g this would be awesome, but would only work in Tokyo Disney and I'm not sure GoTG is popular there lol