Disney is an entertainment company, but it is also at the forefront of robotics development!

Earlier this year, Disney released a preview of their new walking robot Baby Groot. This bot is extremely realistic and honestly kinda hard to believe, but robo-Groot is just the start. Let’s look at some MORE details about the little guy and a much BIGGER innovation hitting the scene…

Robot Groot is meant to be “a small-scale, free-roaming robotic actor — the first of its kind for Disney and a real robotics milestone.” In the preview, it’s hard to tell exactly what this little robot is capable of. Take a look for yourself!

This video shows that robo-Groot is capable of complex movements and facial expressions, but now, we have a few more insights about him. The New York Times had a reporter meet robo-Groot. His response was calling this little guy a “sentient Disney robot.”

Is robo-Groot actually sentient? Not exactly. But, the reporter talks about his capability to respond to humans in a way that is utterly realistic. Plus, he was capable of conveying emotions like happiness and sadness. Imagineers called such a level of interaction a way to stay relevant.

When this “sentient” technology debuts to the public one day, it’s sure to be a massive step for the entertainment and robotics field. But what about that bigger project? Spoiler alert: We mean “bigger” literally.

Robo-Groot is pretty small but Imagineers are working on larger-than-life meet and greets too! Check out this video of Imagineers, Jonathan Becker (Research and Development Imagineer) and Richard-Alexandre Peloquin (Research Engineer Imagineer), working on tech to support HUGE character interactions.

@disneyparks

Disney Imagineers are in early development engineering new ways to bring larger than life #characters to life! #Disney #DisneyParks #Imagineering

♬ original sound – Disney Parks

 

There isn’t much concrete detail released about this tech, but it appears to be human-controlled mechanical puppets that look shockingly realistic as large creatures. If we had to guess, one of them looks like it could become a walking Yeti and that red hand looks suspiciously like one we’ve seen wearing the Infinity Gauntlet (we’re talking Thanos).

We can’t wait to hear more about BOTH of these innovations! As always, stay tuned to DFB to make sure you’re in the loop on all the most exciting Disney technology!

Click here to see more of Robo-Groot!

What do you think of these tech updates? Tell us in the comments!