Disney built a real BD-1? Yes, yes they did.

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Alan Timm

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Oct 7, 2023, 12:56:08 PM10/7/23
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https://spectrum.ieee.org/disney-robot


How Disney Packed Big Emotion Into a Little Robot Melding animation and reinforcement learning for free-ranging emotive performances

On Wednesday, at the 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), in Detroit, a Disney Research team presented a brand new robotic character during their evening keynote address. The adorable robot packs an enormous amount of expression into its child-size body, from its highly expressive head and two wiggly antennae to its stubby little legs. But what sets this robot apart from other small bipeds is how it walks—it’s full of personality, emoting as it moves in a way that makes it seem uniquely alive.

An animated GIF showing a small white legged robot cutely interacting with a researcher in a robotics lab.

Alan Timm

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Oct 18, 2023, 10:02:41 AM10/18/23
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OMG they built 3 and let them run around the park!  Squeeeeee!

bd1s at wdw.jpg

Chris Albertson

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Oct 18, 2023, 10:48:36 AM10/18/23
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This is a great meeting of engineering and art.  This might be the only killer app for small bipods - entertainment. It's well done.

But these robots seem VERY labor intensive to operate. Notice where there are four people operating the remote controls (for three robots) and several others needed to clear a path for the robots to walk. But this seems like a test that went well. They likely learned a lot.

A lot of the success looks like it comes from the way the performance was designed. The controllers are walking in a tight group, in formation, and dressed in character and are not so noticeable.   It wouldn't look nearly so good if the controllers were dressed as normal engineers and paired one-to-one with the robots.   Simple staging gained them a lot.   At some point they might be able to hide the engineers by hiding video cameras in the trees and buildings and using a longer radio link.

The crowd controllers are there to stay.  A small robot is a trip hazard and they need to ensure safety.   But they could be made part of the show.

I think we can learn a lot from this.

The best robots are always the ones that are best presented.  You need a mixture of engineering, art, and showmanship.



On Oct 18, 2023, at 7:02 AM, Alan Timm <gest...@gmail.com> wrote:

OMG they built 3 and let them run around the park!  Squeeeeee!

<bd1s at wdw.jpg>


On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 9:56:08 AM UTC-7 Alan Timm wrote:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/disney-robot


How Disney Packed Big Emotion Into a Little Robot Melding animation and reinforcement learning for free-ranging emotive performances

On Wednesday, at the 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), in Detroit, a Disney Research team presented a brand new robotic character during their evening keynote address. The adorable robot packs an enormous amount of expression into its child-size body, from its highly expressive head and two wiggly antennae to its stubby little legs. But what sets this robot apart from other small bipeds is how it walks—it’s full of personality, emoting as it moves in a way that makes it seem uniquely alive.

An animated GIF showing a small white legged robot cutely interacting with a researcher in a robotics lab.

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<bd1s at wdw.jpg>

Gmail

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Oct 18, 2023, 12:21:58 PM10/18/23
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Oh, so they are puppets. 



Thomas

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On Oct 18, 2023, at 7:48 AM, Chris Albertson <alberts...@gmail.com> wrote:

This is a great meeting of engineering and art.  This might be the only killer app for small bipods - entertainment. It's well done.

Alan Timm

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Oct 18, 2023, 4:06:19 PM10/18/23
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For now...   :-)

There's no reason why someone wouldn't be able to slap a couple of depth cameras and some compute to turn it into an autonomous robot platform.

Alan

Alan Timm

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Oct 18, 2023, 4:41:17 PM10/18/23
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For anyone looking at building something similar, low reduction bldc gearmotors with integrated drivers have been coming down in price.

3dPrint did an article on the robot and said that they were made with 3d printing and COTS components.

The Xiaomi ones look interesting, someone on the simplefoc forum ordered a handful to see what they're about.

Xiaomi Cyber dog geared motor:  ~$60

DDSM115 Hub Motor:  ~$60

MyActuator  RMD Series:  ~$150-$1200

LKMTech MG Series:  ~$150 - $460

Chris Albertson

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Oct 18, 2023, 4:59:25 PM10/18/23
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Software to make a robot “autonomous” is harder than building the mechanical part of the robot by a large amount.

Getting a robot to do something interesting without either pre-scripting it or placing a human controller in the loop.

Alan Timm

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Oct 18, 2023, 5:10:00 PM10/18/23
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Correct, but the point remains that both the hardware and even the software is reaching a tipping point where costs are coming down and everyone's using it.

Most recent quad and biped projects I've seen have standardized on these low reduction bldc motors, the open source control frameworks will be available soon if they aren't already.

Until recently these motors were too expensive for my budget, but $60?  that's almost affordable.
This design has 5 DOF in each leg, 10 total, with 4 more for the neck and head and 2 for the antennae.
Only the legs need the bldc drives, the rest can use standard serial servos.

Gmail

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Oct 18, 2023, 5:39:28 PM10/18/23
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I could use a few of those low reduction bldc motors for my projects!




Thomas

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On Oct 18, 2023, at 2:10 PM, Alan Timm <gest...@gmail.com> wrote:

Correct, but the point remains that both the hardware and even the software is reaching a tipping point where costs are coming down and everyone's using it.
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Chris Albertson

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Oct 18, 2023, 6:21:08 PM10/18/23
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I have some motors here.   My goal is $50 per joint.  That is a tough goal but I think I can if I use custom PCB controllers.   Places like JLCPCB will make custom PCBs for about 50 cents each plus the parts.

Yes the control software for BLDC motors is in place and is now very mature and easy to use.
See this:  https://simplefoc.com/. Thehardware has also gotton very easy to design, use some mosfets and a gate driver chip and a microcontroller chip.  Put them on a custom board.

As for the reduction system, I thnk a dual belt is the lowest cost because you can 3D print it (except for the belt). Gears need to be metal and will never be really cheap.

The raw motoors I have are $20 each and will tale 20 amps for a very short time

So, like I said, the hard part is the higher-level control where the robot decides on it’s own where to go and what to do.   

I would sugest that anyone wanting to try this start with a quadruped.  90% of the walking iuuses are the same with 4 legs as with 2.

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Alan Timm (RSSC)

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Nov 24, 2023, 6:50:23 PM11/24/23
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How did I miss this?  An updated video with some great closeups of the bots from last week:

Notice:
  • the downward-facing 3d camera on the chest
  • the bumper material on the feet.  it's actively balancing

Screenshot from 2023-11-24 15-46-41.png

Chris Albertson

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Nov 24, 2023, 7:37:43 PM11/24/23
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Here is the video.  When you see them out in the wild, you can see just how well they work. Notice the three operators.  Each is holding an R/C controller with two thumb-joysticks.   But runing these in the part took a full crew of 6 to 8 people.  I think they nailed it.    I’m thinking maybe one joystick to “forward, back, turn” and the other is the head swivel.   The robots must be doing their own internal balancing.
On Nov 24, 2023, at 3:50 PM, Alan Timm (RSSC) <gest...@gmail.com> wrote:

How did I miss this?  An updated video with some great closeups of the bots from last week:

Notice:
  • the downward-facing 3d camera on the chest
  • the bumper material on the feet.  it's actively balancing

<Screenshot from 2023-11-24 15-46-41.png>

On Wednesday, October 18, 2023 at 7:02:41 AM UTC-7 Alan Timm wrote:
OMG they built 3 and let them run around the park!  Squeeeeee!

bd1s at wdw.jpg


On Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 9:56:08 AM UTC-7 Alan Timm wrote:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/disney-robot


How Disney Packed Big Emotion Into a Little Robot Melding animation and reinforcement learning for free-ranging emotive performances

On Wednesday, at the 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), in Detroit, a Disney Research team presented a brand new robotic character during their evening keynote address. The adorable robot packs an enormous amount of expression into its child-size body, from its highly expressive head and two wiggly antennae to its stubby little legs. But what sets this robot apart from other small bipeds is how it walks—it’s full of personality, emoting as it moves in a way that makes it seem uniquely alive.

An animated GIF showing a small white legged robot cutely interacting with a researcher in a robotics lab.

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<Screenshot from 2023-11-24 15-46-41.png>

Carl

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Dec 1, 2023, 2:58:37 PM12/1/23
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James Bruton, of course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHjnWm7hGH8

Chris Albertson

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Dec 1, 2023, 8:03:50 PM12/1/23
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He builds stuff but never gets the software to work. Then goes on to repeat.

On Dec 1, 2023, at 11:58 AM, Carl <cfsu...@gmail.com> wrote:

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Alan Timm

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Apr 30, 2024, 10:02:29 AM4/30/24
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Meet BDX:  BDX Droids Arrive at Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge for Season of the Force - Disneyland

meet bdx.jpg

Chris Albertson

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Apr 30, 2024, 1:35:07 PM4/30/24
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It will be interesting to see how Disney is able to operate these robots in a crowded place.   The photo we see looks to me like an internal training session.  All the people in the background have Disney name tags or ID badges and the woman standing in front looks to be explaining something.     Disney has to show off these ‘bots while keeping the crowd away but at the same time not making the crowd control people seem like policemen.   Today our current technology limits mean we have to keep humans and robots (even little cute robots) far apart.    If a kid were to touch a robot a finger could get crushed in a leg joint.

These particular robots are teleoperated by remote control and I’d assume the operator would stop or “freeze” the robot if a person approached it.

Why do I say “interesting”, because as we think about how to build a domestic robot, it would NOT be remotely controlled and might be driving itself out of your direct line of sight   Domestic robots by definition might come in contact with unsupervised children or your cat.

Disney can afford to have three humans for each robot.  One working the controls, one to keep people away, and a third as an observer, standing by to help as needed.   A real, working robot would be counterproductive if it needed constant help from three humans.

But can anyone here think of how a domestic robot can be “child and pet safe”? A machine that can put away dishes and clean bathrooms is a very powerful machine.   Can a full-size humanoid robot EVER be child and pet safe?

On Apr 30, 2024, at 7:02 AM, Alan Timm <gest...@gmail.com> wrote:

meet bdx.jpg

Scott Monaghan

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May 1, 2024, 12:49:04 PM5/1/24
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That was great. Thanks for sharing!

One thing that is very impressive to me is the active balancing that frees up the remote puppeteers to focus on expressiveness & communication without worrying about tipping over OR IMPORTANTLY, the active balancing actuation distracting or interfering with the puppeteered motion.

The number of actuators on this thing is wild. Did you all notice even the head antennas are actuated?  


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Chris Albertson

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May 1, 2024, 1:30:11 PM5/1/24
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Yes,   I noticed all of this.  I was trying to look at how the operators were controlling the ‘bots.   It seems there was only one operator per bot.  It looks like you control the direction and speed of walking with one hand so location would work like a simple wheeled car-like ‘bot.     The controller looks to me like R/C controllers, not computer screens, I’d bet the heads and antenna have programmed sequences.   Otherwise, it seems that you have to have a very skilled operator.   But on the other hand the head anaitions seem to be used when the robot is not walking.  Perhaps doing both overloads the operator,

Remote control is hard.  My walking robot is like that.  I use a glass screen with the usual sliders and drop-boxes to remotely control the robot but  I can not make it do complex dances by remote control as the GIU can have only one active control at a time.  I can see why Disney is using R/C controllers.  My plan is to try x-box game controller next.   Later add more automation

But also look at the feet.   Balance is always easier when the feet are huge.     

Finally, I wonder if these robots were designed for the Disney park or if they are "left overs” from the film.  Disney might be recycling (or rebuilding) movie props.  

Alan Timm

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May 8, 2024, 10:43:55 AM5/8/24
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Here's another clip of BD-X from a recent robotics summit in Boston.

"Watch Disney Imagineering's BD-1 style droid from Star Wars at the 2024 Robotics Summit & Expo"

bdx boston.jpg

Alan Timm

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Jul 17, 2024, 10:50:02 AM7/17/24
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Oh boy!  A 10 minute deep dive into Disney's BD-X!

bdx.jpg

"Legged robots have achieved impressive feats in dynamic locomotion in challenging unstructured terrain. However, in entertainment applications, the design and control of these robots face additional challenges in appealing to human audiences. This work aims to unify expressive, artist-directed motions and robust dynamic mobility for legged robots. To this end, we introduce a new bipedal robot, designed with a focus on character-driven mechanical features. We present a reinforcement learning-based control architecture to robustly execute artistic motions conditioned on command signals. During runtime, these command signals are generated by an animation engine which composes and blends between multiple animation sources. Finally, an intuitive operator interface enables real-time show performances with the robot. The complete system results in a believable robotic character, and paves the way for enhanced human-robot engagement in various contexts, in entertainment robotics and beyond."

Brian Erickson

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Jul 17, 2024, 11:42:09 AM7/17/24
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Very impressive. I thought it was going to just be a cute demo, but instead it was a great blueprint to follow for using reinforcement learning for complex robot control. I'm excited to try some of these concepts out. BTW, they're using steam-deck controllers for handheld control, the same units that Justin, Seth and I are starting to use for our robots.

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Alan Timm

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Jul 17, 2024, 12:02:09 PM7/17/24
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Hah!  I was wondering about that!

I was taking a look at them again this weekend and they they have a 64gb LCD version for $349.

And a slightly nicer OLED version with a larger battery for $549.

Gmail

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Jul 17, 2024, 2:00:17 PM7/17/24
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Thanks for posting this Alan!



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Need something prototyped, built or coded? I’ve been building prototypes for companies for 15 years. I am now incorporating generative AI into products.

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On Jul 17, 2024, at 7:50 AM, Alan Timm <gest...@gmail.com> wrote:


Oh boy!  A 10 minute deep dive into Disney's BD-X!

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<bdx.jpg>

Chris Albertson

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Jul 18, 2024, 1:18:25 AM7/18/24
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Article like this are good because they kick us out of out normal way of thinking. “show performance with robot” is something I’d not considered.

THis also answered one of my biggest questions. I was watching the video of these robots in use at the park and we can see they have people following them using a kind of remote controller but it looked like it would be nearly impossible to control one of these with only two hands and ten fingers.

I have tried using an x-box controller to drive a walking robot and I run out of fingers and buttons even for my simple quad robot.

Disney’s solution is impressive. It seems they control the robot at a higher level and let some of the actions run from some kind of scripted action. Then they blend the script and live control input. The design of the operator interface is the key.

I was thinking of using a MIDI pad to control a robot. These have an 8x8 array of pressure-senitive buttons. Each button is covered with soft rubber and you can change the colors in real-time. When you press a button the device sends a button-press signal down the USB cable. They are used for electronic music performance and as drum machines. The pad is completly programable and very general purpose, just a basic analog key array and RBG colored buttons. Cost is not so bad because they are mass produced. Here is one: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/APCmini2--akai-professional-apc-mini-mk-2-performance-controller-for-ableton-live

People have been using MIDI for not-music for a while, here is a photo. Mmaybe you can see how it might work for a robot. But I think the above button array is better than the piano-like controller. I already have several of the piano-like ones.

The idea of “robot control as performance” makes me think of MIDI and the photo below (stage lighting control)

keyboard_small.jpeg

Alan Timm

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Jul 23, 2024, 10:04:00 AM7/23/24
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Cross posting from hbrobotics from Steve "dillo" Okay (Thanks Steve!)

This video smelled like it was related to a published paper but I couldn't find anything on arxiv.

Turns out disneyresearch publishes their papers on their own site.

It's a good read and a lot of details about how reinforcement learning and isaac gym (replaced by isaac lab) are used to train the bots behaviors.

Chris Albertson

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Jul 23, 2024, 11:39:27 AM7/23/24
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On Jul 23, 2024, at 7:03 AM, Alan Timm <gest...@gmail.com> wrote:

Cross posting from hbrobotics from Steve "dillo" Okay (Thanks Steve!)

This video smelled like it was related to a published paper but I couldn't find anything on arxiv.

Turns out disneyresearch publishes their papers on their own site.

It's a good read and a lot of details about how reinforcement learning and isaac gym (replaced by isaac lab) are used to train the bots behaviors.

Was Isaac Lab mentioned somewhere?   I read what Google could find but missed that.  I’d like to find the paper where they go into more detail about the methods used.  I assumed it was some in-house framework and this was the first use of their new method.

Alan Timm

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Jul 23, 2024, 11:47:45 AM7/23/24
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Yeah they mention isaac gym and RL in the paper.  I just mentioned isaac lab because it's replacing isaac gym for new development.

Brian and I are starting to dig into it for the Unitree Go2.

Chris Albertson

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Jul 23, 2024, 11:49:47 AM7/23/24
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On Jul 23, 2024, at 8:47 AM, Alan Timm <gest...@gmail.com> wrote:

Yeah they mention isaac gym and RL in the paper

Would you have a link to the paper?

Alan Timm

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Jul 23, 2024, 12:30:15 PM7/23/24
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Sure thing.

It's a good read and has a lot of details about how reinforcement learning and isaac gym (replaced by isaac lab) are used to train the bots behaviors.

Alan Timm

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Aug 8, 2024, 5:11:45 PM8/8/24
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Breathing Life into Disney's Robotic Characters With Deep Reinforcement Learning

"At Disney, we are fundamentally rethinking what entertainment robotics means to this world. In this talk, we will provide insight into the robotic character platform developed by Walt Disney Imagineering that enables the rapid design of legged robotic characters that learn to imitate artist-specified animations with a combination of deep reinforcement learning and GPU-accelerated simulation. We’ll also showcase live for attendees the first characters developed with this platform – our BD-X series droids."

bdx siggraph.jpg

Alan Timm

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Aug 12, 2024, 4:53:10 PM8/12/24
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BDX Droid Presentation from Disney Imagineering at D23 Expo 2024

"Watch these little BDX Droids come to life on stage at the D23 Expo. Did you see them at Disneyland during Season of the Force? Read all about it at attractionsmagazine.com"

bdx at d23 presentation.jpg

On Thursday, August 8, 2024 at 2:11:45 PM UTC-7 Alan Timm wrote:

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