LEGGED HIGH-DEXTERITY SELF-BALANCING CAPABLE ROBOT ACTOR

Number: 20200369333
Published: 2020-11-26
Filed: 2019-05-24
Assignee: DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC.
Inventors: LAVALLEY; SCOTT CHRISTOPHER, THOMPSON; KYLE ROBERT, HOPKINS; MICHAEL ANTHONY, DICKINSON; DEXTER J., BISHOP; JARED EDWARD, REES; JERRY W., CESARE; KYLE MICHAEL
CPC: B25J11/0035; B25J11/003; B62D57/032; B25J11/0015; B25J11/0005
Verdict: High Hardware
Source: Google Patents · FreePatentsOnline

The keeper's note

Legged, high-dexterity, self-balancing robot actor for animatronics.

Abstract

A robot actor, or character mobility hardware platform, adapted to unleash or provide a wide variety of characters in the physical world. The robot actor enables the often screen-constrained characters to become life-like, interactive participants with nearby people in ways not presently achievable. The robot actor is an untethered, free-roaming robot that is has two (or more) legs, is adapted for high dexterity, is controlled and designed to be self-balancing, and, due to this combination of characteristics, the robot can provide characters with an illusion of life and, in many cases, in correct proportion and scale. The hardware and software of the robot actor will become a new generation of animatronic figures by providing a hardware platform capable of continuously evolving to become more capable through advances in controls and artificial intelligence (AI).

Background

BACKGROUND1. Field of the Description

The present description relates, in general, to design and control of high dexterity, self-balancing, legged robots, and, more particularly, to a robot (and a system and a method of designing such a robot) that is adapted to operate as a robotic actor capable of performing as one or more characters so as to provide the illusion of life by displaying that individual character's unique attitudes and story-consistent emotions via audio, facial expression, and recognizable body language. The “robot” with this design may also be considered “a character mobility hardware platform.”2. Relevant Background.

There are many applications and environments where it is desirable to provide a physical character from a book, a movie, a video game, or a television show. For example, many venues may wish to entertain visitors by having the characters interact with visitors or by having the characters put on a show. Often, these characters are too small, too uniquely proportioned, and too delicately detailed for any costumed actor to portray without breaking the reality of the experience for visitors. As technology increasingly brings higher quality to entertainment experiences, visitors increasingly expect characters to have the same degree of authenticity in scale, look, and nuance of behavior, whether experienced in movie space, game space, virtual space, augmented space or physical space or whether experienced across multiples of these spaces

Claims

1. A robot for bringing characters to life in the physical world, comprising: movable components; memory storing a set of animations, motion parameters, or scripts defining a set of gestures and a set of movements for each of a plurality of moods or emotions, wherein the set of animations or scripts are generated based on one of the characters; and a controller located onboard the robot, wherein the robot is untethered and free-ranging in a physical space, wherein the controller determines, in real time, a present mood or emotion associated with the robot, wherein the controller selects one of the sets of gestures or one of the sets of movements based on the present mood or emotion, and wherein the controller operates a set of actuators to operate the movable components using the selected one of the sets of gestures or the sets of movements, whereby the robot is operated to provide an illusion of life. 9. A method of generating control animations, motion parameters, or scripts for a self-balancing, legged robot, comprising: animating a performance for a legged robot with a predefined hardware configuration; verifying whether the animated performance complies with physical constraints, wherein when the animated performance is noncompliant with the physical constraints the animating is repeated; and running a simulation of the animated performance based on the predefined hardware configuration to determine whether the legged robot balances, wherein the animating is repeated when the legged robot loses balance during the running of the simulation. 14. A robot for bringing characters to life in the physical world, comprising: a pair of movable legs; memory storing authored animation content generated to correspond with a screen-based character; sensors perceiving inputs from a physical environment in which the robot is positioned; and a controller including a behavior engine processing the authored animation content along with the inputs from the sensors to generate motion commands to control motion of the pair of movable legs, wherein the controller performs motion synthesis prior to generating the motion commands, wherein the behavior engine selects and places in sequential order a set of movements in the authored animation content based on the inputs from the sensors, and wherein a set of actuators in the pair of legs operate in response to the motion commands.