Walt Disney Imagineering has never ceases to amaze, but today we’re seeing the technical achievements in Disney Parks reach new levels. The newest groundbreaking creation from WDI is a free-roaming robot of Frozen’s Olaf the snowman. He looks just like the character from the film, and it turns out that’s not the only thing he has in common with his animated predecessor.
I recently got a chance to see the new Olaf robot up close and speak with two members of the team behind its creation, Kyle Laughlin and Mortiz Bächer. They revealed that one of the challenges of making Olaf work, somewhat fittingly for the character, was heat. Laughlin explained…
So much of what you'll see when you interact with Olaf is his eye contact, and he's looking at you, and you're having that emotional reaction because he's able to connect with his eyes. It puts a tremendous amount of stress on the neck actuator, and Moritz and team found a really novel way to solve that problem.
Without getting too deep in the mechanical weeds, the issue was that Olaf’s physical model involves a very large head attached to a very small neck. Since these proportions were fixed, otherwise the robot wouldn’t look like Olaf, it limited the components that could be used in the neck to small ones, which resulted in Olaf overheating and breaking down.
Article continues belowThe solution was to use simulation, previously only used to model the mechanical systems of the robot, to model the thermal dynamics. Now, much like Olaf in Frozen 2, who has the benefit of permafrost, the robot is able to manage its own temperature and always stay cool. Mortiz Bächer said…
Just carrying that weight of a head was difficult. So we had overheating problems, and we basically brought this intro simulation, and then Olaf learned to not melt, basically, and manage its own heat. And that's a first, you don't see any humanoid robot that can do this.
This is a massive technical achievement in humanoid robotics, but that’s not all it is. The fact that the Olaf robot is able to do this has real-world benefits to fans visiting theme parks, like Disneyland Paris, where the robot Olaf will make his official debut with the opening of World of Frozen later this month. Because Olaf is able to keep from “melting,” there should be less need for the robot to be pulled due to technical problems. Laughlin explained...
And now that Olaf can continue to perform, whereas we would have had to take that character off stage as a part of that. And so those character interactions can go longer. We can see more people and ultimately pay off what people are coming to Disneyland Paris to come see soon.
While those of us who can’t make a trip to Disneyland Paris or Disneyland Hong Kong may not get a chance to see Olaf up close anytime soon, it’s clear there are long-term plans not only for Olaf, but for the future of robotics in Disney Parks. The fact that these technical hurdles have been overcome means that when that day comes, there’s a better chance that the robots won’t fail because the Orlando or Anaheim sun got too hot.
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