"Shocked, I may have seen the real Abraham Lincoln." "this tall and lonely man sat in a chair, just like the stone statue of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.", "but this Lincoln has a life size and seems to have flesh and blood.".
This is what Robert De Roos, the author of the article "the magical world of Walt Disney" in National Geographic magazine published in 1963, described his emotion when he saw "Lincoln" during his visit to the new theme park.
This Lincoln is not only vivid, but also vividly makes 15 different expressions. It is a product of Disney's exclusive technology of audio animatronics.
But now, when we see Lincoln again, it may be difficult to feel the shock of the 1960s, or even "a fake look". Our eyes have been trained by CGI (computer three-dimensional animation) on the big screen for many years.
In the face of the more critical eyes of the masses, Disney sent Walt Disney imaging to take over.
Baby Groot
WDI also moved out the things that had been studied at the bottom of the box for several years. It not only created a little Groot, but also arranged a spider man.
Spider man stuntman who hasn't put on his war clothes yet. Image from: gigazine
At present, the Spider-Man will appear in the project of "spider web walking: The Adventures of Spider-Man" in the avenger alliance park.
From "brick" to stuntman
The playing method of "spider web walking" is more traditional and not exciting, but spider man's high-altitude performance is a highlight of this project. Without the protection of the safety rope, "Spider Man" will be thrown 20 meters high by the spider silk, such as Peter Parker in the film, who generally rolls, presses down and forks his legs in the air.
Concept map of cobweb crossing project. Picture from: Disney
The spider man will fly several times a day. If he is starred by a real stuntman, he will risk his life every time he jumps. In view of this, WDI made a stunt robot to play "Spider Man" to complete this challenge.
The robot stuntman is only responsible for loosening the traction rope at the right angle, then rolling in the air, and finally stretching and falling into the buffer net.
In other words, it doesn't walk, talk and interact. At this time, the Dutch brother should breathe a sigh of relief and praise WDI.
Although the performance process is mechanical enough and even a little boring, there are still many difficulties that need to be overcome by WDI.
The timing of "body folding", the timing of letting go, maintaining a stable posture in the air, and the control of landing (net), etc.
Before becoming the "Spider Man" of Disney park, the stunt robot developed by WDI has experienced four generations.
The initial prototype is a robot called the brick, which can control the center of gravity, control the attitude in the air and rotate autonomously.
On this basis, WDI has developed a stick man robot, that is, a folding mechanism is added to the brick to simulate the shape of one leg and one arm.
Through program control, when swinging on the rope, bend your knees first to accelerate. When a certain angle is reached, "let go" swings into the air with the help of inertia, stretches your body at the same time, makes a perfect rotation from the "bricks" in it, and finally lies flat on the Internet.
Thus, a complete set of simulated "Spider Man" shuttling between buildings is completed.
WDI then combines two sets of stick robots into a humanoid form to become a prototype. On this basis, a series of optimizations such as optimization and collaboration are carried out, and finally become the humanoid stunt robot of stuntronics.
From the stick robot to the final stuntronics, the WDI team omitted a lot in the wired interview and did not focus on the efforts made by the team.
And it's more about how to be more like real spider man and ensure security.
While wandering in the city, while playing mobile phones
"Making robots requires 100% accuracy," said Tony of the development team. "In order to make stuntronics more human," the team designed and calculated and simulated many sets of actions for stuntronics to present a rash Peter Parker. ".
During the performance, stuntronics may make a perfect forward somersault in the air, or just extend one arm, make a lateral somersault, or make a set of extremely twisted somersaults and rotations. In short, how do you do it.
Stuntronics, weighing about 40 kg, can imagine the impact force of a free fall from a height of 20 meters. Therefore, WDI team continuously monitored the climate and wind speed of California Disneyland Adventure Park for one year and included it in stuntronics's action algorithm.
In the outdoor test, the placement of the spider man stuntman was within the controllable range.
The landing point, or the landing area, is actually a deceleration net about 4 meters long, but the stuntronics flying several times a day and non-stop throughout the year are not complete, and the deceleration net will be broken on the day, resulting in irreparable losses (mainly due to the high cost of stuntronics).
Stuntronics' shell is made of resin and made of 3D printer. Even if the deceleration network is broken, the WDI team also said that the resin shell can protect the internal expensive and sophisticated motherboard, processor and corresponding circuits.
At present, the spider man played by stuntronics is only planned to appear in Disneyland Adventure Park in California and Disneyland studios in Paris, and the corresponding plans have not been announced in other areas.
If the spider man played by the dedicated stuntman is popular all over the web, Disney will invite it to parks around the world, and even naturally let stuntronics play more superhero roles.
I don't want AI, just actors
Robots can be said to be the darling of the current market and capital. In the past, there were well-known robots powered by netred Boston, then Tesla BOT on Tesla AI day, and then domestic enterprises such as Xiaomi and Xiaopeng launched similar robot products.
An actor who plays Tesla bot. Picture from: Tesla
Without exception, they are closely related to AI, or they are more like robots with a certain "autonomous" ability. On the Disney side, the robots appearing or participating in the show are more like "passive" on the surface.
During the interview, the stuntronics development team never mentioned AI, or even complex processors. The stuntman has built-in gyroscopes and speedometers similar to smart phones to sense space and state information, and three lidars are installed at the joints for ranging.
The so-called built-in algorithm may only preset several actions, and temporarily does not have its own deductive characteristics.
Disney also brought baby Groot into reality before the spider man stunt actor appeared.
Similar to stuntronics, which is ready to work, little grut will also appear in Disney's corresponding projects in the future, and the functions are relatively similar. They can be called "entertainment" robots.
Different from the products of other companies, robots bear many important tasks and represent the strength of the company in intelligence and functionality. After several changes of ownership, the focus of Boston power returned to practicality, and spot was more sent to the battlefield and special environment, bringing more efficient labor force to relevant enterprises.
Although Tesla BOT is more like a musk style "gimmick" at this stage, it still shows Tesla's attainments in AI and a general direction of future development. There is no specific industrial form. Humanoid modeling can better integrate into the society and do some boring work instead of us.
These robots of Disney are directly undertaken under Disneyland to act, receive people, treat things, perform and bring wonders.
Stuntronics, who plays spider man, has gone through four generations, from the initial brick robot to the stick robot. The ultimate goal may not be just to perform spider man jumping.
After all, Disney hasn't bought Marvel before, and the copyright of spider man is still in Sony's hands. Turning stuntronics into robot spider man is more like a modification from the original technical reserve.
The interactive robot prototype released by Disney in May 2016. Picture from: Disney
Disney's fantasy Engineering Department has many prototypes similar to stick robots. Humanoid, interactive and low intelligence are their similarities.
The avenger base Park, which was opened on June 4. Picture from: Disney
Just like the audio animatronics, which Disney is proud of in 1963, the initial purpose of investment and research in robots is to serve Disneyland. The goal is also very clear, that is, to move the world in Disney movies and animation into reality and become the magic world in the real world.
In short, Disney's goal may be the sunshine version of west world, while other companies prefer to create Bicentennial man.
Just from now on, it seems that Disney is closer to the goal?
This article is from WeChat public number ID:ifanr, the official account of the 36 krypton.
