Disney researchers are a step closer to bringing cartoon characters to life, turning to robotics to mimic how characters move.

Katsu Yamane, Joohyung Kim and Seungmoon Song from Disney Research Pittsburgh designed a robotic frame by analyzing the movements of a peanut-shaped character walking with a rolling, somewhat bow-legged gait. Made up of servo motors and 3D-printed links fitted inside the character's skin, the robotic frame is controlled by software which allows it to maintain its balance while replicating the character's walk as closely as possible.

Yamane explained that the biggest challenge in bringing a character to life is that designers don't usually take into account physics. However, roboticists have to constantly take into consideration physical constraints binding the characters they are trying to create real-life versions of.

"It's important that, despite physical limitations, we do not sacrifice style or the quality of motion," added Yamane. The robots don't just have to look like the characters but they also have to move exactly in the same way that people are used to seeing the characters move.

The researchers first worked on developing the robot's lower half. This would make it possible to explore the physics of walking, which matters a lot in the movement of a character. If they can come up with a way to produce a working lower half of the robotic frame, they can use the same exact process to create a functional upper half.

The research team was successful in producing a working lower half for the robot but compromises had to be made along the way. For example, the character had a foot with three joints and an ankle. All of the joints can move freely at three degrees, meaning the foot would need nine actuators. That wasn't practical so instead Yamane and his team mimicked the movement of the character by building an ankle with two degrees of freedom, a knee joint with a degree of freedom and a hip joint with three degrees of freedom.

The researchers were not able to replicate how the animated character moves exactly but they were still able to mimic its movements by making the necessary adjustments in the trajectories the robot's toes, ankle, knees, hips and pelvis would make. The robot stayed stable by keeping its stance foot on the ground.

Yamane, Kim and Song will be presenting the work it went to creating a bipedal robot at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Seattle.

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