Disney Is Working On More Natural Moving Robots
Disney may not have much of a stake in robots at the industrial scale, but the company sure employs plenty of animatronics at its parks and films. So it only makes sense that it would want to build the most natural moving robots it can and encourage you to suspend your disbelief. Its research labs have developed a new method for controlling mechanical puppets, without the usual motors, pumps or valves. Instead the set up you see above (and in the video after the break) relies on pneumatic tubes and air pressure. As a puppeteer moves one arm, the other mimics it exactly, with no bounce back, stuttering and an imperceptible delay.