Disney Imagineering’s Baby Groot robot is absolutely incredible

By Kevin Fraser

Posted 5 years ago

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Those Disney Imagineers are able to pull off some pretty incredible things, and their latest feat of magic involves bringing Baby Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 to life as a free-walking robot. Known as Project Kiwi, Disney Imagineers have been developing this technology for the past three years, and the result is a fully mobile bipedal character that will be able to walk around parks and interact with guests. It's important to note that Project Kiwi is still a work in progress and it will likely be a while before these characters are seen in the wild, so to speak, but it's already quite amazing.

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R&D Imagineer Principal Scott LaValley told Tech Crunch that, "Project KIWI started about three years ago to figure out how we can bring our smaller characters to life at their actual scale in authentic ways. It’s an exciting time for bipedal robotics and with an incredible team and our combination of technology, artistry and magic, we are bringing characters to life that could not have happened anywhere but Disney." Although the version of Project Kiwi seen in the above video takes the form of Baby Groot, the technology can and likely will be used to bring a variety of other Disney characters to life in future.

As I mentioned above, Project Kiwi is still a work in progress, and the team has several more upgrades to make, including "a new set of actuators that can dynamically apply torque plus added sensing capabilities for more stability and reaction to uneven ground or interactions," which is especially important as kids will likely want to hug the character and you wouldn't want it suddenly toppling over. The Imagineers are also looking to develop a "sensory package that allows Kiwi to more fully understand the world around it and to identify people and their faces. This becomes important because eye contact is such an emotive and powerful tool to use in transporting a participant."

Source: Tech Crunch

Tags: Action, Adventure, Bradley Cooper, Chris Pratt, Chris Sullivan, Comedy, comic book, Dave Bautista, Disney, Elizabeth Debicki, Glenn Close, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, James Gunn, Josh Brolin, Kurt Russell, Michael Rooker, Pom Klementieff, Science-Fiction, Vin Diesel, Zoe Saldana

About the Author

Kevin Fraser

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Favorite Movies: Alien, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, read more Braveheart, The Bridge on the River Kwai, City of God, Cloud Atlas, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Edge, The Fifth Element, Galaxy Quest, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Godfather Parts I & II, Goodfellas, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Gladiator, Lawrence of Arabia, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Magnificent Seven, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, The Prestige, Prisoners, Psycho, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Rear Window, The Shining, Sorcerer, The Talented Mr. Ripley, There Will be Blood, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Zodiac

Likes: Drawing, cooking, watching movies, trying and failing to come up with read more more items for my likes list.

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