The Disney Enterprises group filed a US patent in February that hints at a possible future for its theme parks: humanoid robots designed for maximum hugging efficiency.

The patent, which was first reported by the Orlando Sentinel, has a suitably warm and fuzzy name: "Soft body robot for physical interaction with humans." It describes mostly rigid robots, with the exception of "fluid-filled voids," "flexible membranes," and "pressure sensors," and these would all work in tandem to guide the robots' joint motion. Ideally, this would result in "a soft, modular robot that is huggable and interactive."

According to the filing, Disney's inventors have already tested prototypes of this hugging robot with children, and in those tests, "the robot was robust to playful, physical interaction." (We assume that is science-speak for "nobody was hugged to death.")

Other human-comfort robots are mentioned in the filing, including "a furry seal robot" that responds to petting and holding, and larger, humanoid robot systems with "soft, sensorized skins to ensure human safety." These are mentioned to differentiate Disney's patent. The former example wouldn't be able to walk around, say, a giant theme park, while the latter requires "complicated electronics," the application says, so Disney's patent appears to be about making its own robots both cuddly and affordable.

Disney doesn't come right out and say that its patent is meant to take away the jobs of honest, hard-working costumed teenagers (beyond the fact that patents are regularly filed without plans to produce what they describe). "Amusement parks" are briefly mentioned, and only to point out one of many places in which companies already use robots, but Disney has never employed robots that respond automatically to user stimulus. The patent does confirm that a given Disney robot "may be based on an animated character."

The most unclear part of the patent filing is the amount of automation we can expect from these robots as described. All interaction, beyond what's automatically triggered by pressure sensors, is controlled by a "controller," and the filing does not clarify whether this is a purely electronic controller that can be left to its own devices or whether it must be overseen and carefully manned by an Imagineer.