Friday, April 06, 2007

Disneyland enjoys robotic revolution

Any discussion of entertainment robots has to include Disney. They have been doing entertainment robots as long as anyone and they do them quite well. With dancing bears and singing pirates Disney's imagineers have created thousands of robots. The robot shown in the picture is used since August, 2003. It is a robot dinosaur named Lucky. He walks on his two back legs and pulls a very large cart of "silk flowers". Really the cart is full of batteries. Even Disney has not figured-out the battery issue that plagues mobile robots. This was the only way they could get enough battery life for the robot to spend a meaningful amount of time wandering the amusement part. In recent years, Disneyland Park has also improved on their robot team by importing one of the world’s most advanced humanoid robots – ASIMO, produced by Honda. Comparing to the old dinosaur robot, ASIMO is much more intelligent as it can perform tasks including walking forward and backward, climbing and descending a flight of stairs and taking direction from a person. This is the robot designed for homes usage in future. It has two arms and two hands, which makes tasks such as reaching for and grasping objects, switching lights on and off, or opening and closing doors much easier compare to previous versions. And it has improved on the battery problem as power supply can last longer. We can expect widely application of similar robots in Disneyland while robots will be designed in those popular figures and identities. referrence: http://www.learnaboutrobots.com/entertainment.htm by Yang Kai, U036508R

8 comments:

Medical said...

I guessed for entertainment robots to be successful, market size is more important than the precise usage or functions of the robots. Well, one can has the 'best' entertainment robot but if it is too expensive or not readily acceptable by the public, it is as good as a failed investment. Thus, I think having robots used in already popular things like disney characters is a very good idea.

U036039B Kim Choon Ming, Alvin

Industry said...

It's an interesting entry to read.Robots do play an important role in the entertainment world such as Disneyland!
--U036546A Wu Lihua

Industry said...

robots in entertainment area have really developed a lot. some robots have even been used for films. i think some tiny robots could also be sold as toys, thus it would become more popular...

moreover, a big problem comes out from this article that power supply may hinder the development of robots. hence, a new energy used as power supply, such as solar energy, may be a solution in the future.

by U037157M Yi Jinzhou

dars.explore said...

I think it is really a good idea. They can let human dress like "micky mouse" or "Donald Duck', but for the gaint dinosaur, we have to use robotics.

by U037121E Liu PengYin

Assistive said...

It's very interesting to see walking dinosaurs around Disneyland! Kudos for the new attraction.

Since the dinosaurs or other robots are moving around in the open, perhaps their next generation prototypes could make use of miniature solar panels to obtain energy to power themselves. Recent research advances in nanotechnology have resulted in solar cells that are much more efficient than existing ones and these could be implemented to meet the power requirements of these dino-robots. :)

by U037779R, Han Mingding

Anonymous said...

Entertainment robots nowadays are not so responsive i guess. People should try to improve entertainment robots to be able to react to the environment and people except just doing routine movements.

Khoo Yuan Jin
U036997M

Assistive said...

The idea of using robots in public area has become common recently. In Louvre Museum in Paris, they are also using some kind of tour guide robot who can lead the tourists around and also deliver a short speech about the article at that position. In general, having robot in our daily life will be a necessary trend in the future.

Phan Tien Khoi
U037846R

dars.edutainment said...

I quite agree with most of your opinions here. Entertainment is a area with large potential to apply robots.

As we have seen from many films and movies, robots appear frequently, though currently most of the robots appearing in the films are artifical ones(animation). I believe, future development of robotics technology can provide real robots to star in a big hollywood film.

yang kai U036508R