Robotronica: How Sphero technology brought Star Wars' newest lovable droid to life

Updated

Star Wars and computer-generated imagery go hand in hand - so it is no wonder incoming droid BB-8 was thought to be a fake by some when he first rolled across screens.

It was not until the Star Wars Celebration back in April in Anaheim, California, when BB-8 rolled onto the stage that critics were finally silenced.

Since then, the newcomer droid has captured the hearts and minds of fans across the galaxy.

Fans are discussing the droid on social media and have even started up websites dedicated to figuring out exactly how it works.

BB-8 comes from the same technology that brings Sphero to life, an intelligent robot ball from the company of the same name based in Colorado.

Sphero co-founder and roboticist Ian Bernstein, who held a talk at Robotronica at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane on Sunday, said they were asked by Disney chief executive Bob Iger a year ago to be part of the new film.

"We knew we had a lot of great technology, but we want to add more story and characterisation around our products. We figured the best people to learn that from would be Disney and all the brands they own," Mr Bernstein told ABC News.

"We had a meeting with Bob Iger and he tells us about this BB-8 character.

"They had already been shooting the movie for quite some time but we were told they couldn't bring that character to life at the time ... so we're like 'we know exactly how to do that, we make ball robots'."

Mr Bernstein said they "could definitely help with the Sphero technology."

"We started working on it that night," he said.

"We had all out parts there and we just started to make it.

"We sent them a video of it driving around. They were crazy excited.

"It's awesome. It's a very loveable robot and it's super cute."

Mr Bernstein said the reaction to BB-8 had been phenomenal.

"There have been people who have started to create their own and even hacking their Spheros to create their own," he said.

"It's Star Wars, people analyse every little thing."

BB-8 will debut on the big screen in December's Episode VII: The Force Awakens, which takes place 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi.

Topics: film-movies, arts-and-entertainment, robots-and-artificial-intelligence, science-and-technology, brisbane-4000

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