Disney Introduces Free-Roaming Baby Groot Robot To Branch Out & Greet Parkgoers

Any Marvel fan could probably tell you that one of the movies’ more heartfelt scenes was at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, when Groot sacrifices himself to save the rest of the crew. Though he could only speak three words, he quickly planted a seed of admiration in the main cast and audiences. The best reward from his sacrifice was seeing him sprout into an undeniably cute baby version of himself. Now Baby Groot could soon walk among parkgoers in the future.
 
Disney Parks and the Imagineers team have just showcased a new development in the robotics side of things, with a life-size Baby Groot that looks just as realistic and cute as the movie version. He was introduced on stage during a playtest with guests, where Star-Lord and some of his Ravagers unveiled the little robot.
 
Quickly, Baby Groot took center stage, busting out some dance moves, saying his famous one-liner, and even showing emotion. Sure, the last bit might be a reach past the lines of uncanny valley, but his large doe-eyes would probably distract you from the fact that he is a robot underneath it all.
 
“We’re a storytelling company, so we want to bring these characters to life in the most authentic way possible. For us, that means a walking, robotic actor…that can move, gesture, and emote in style,” said Joel Peavy, Executive R&D Imagineer, in the demo video.

The new “free-roaming robotic actor” is said to be able to take on different characters of around the same size, adding a little more diversity to the parks’ cast. The bots have 50 degrees of freedom, allowing them to move, walk, gesture, and display emotions. The tech uses custom authoring tools that utilize whole-body motion planning and character animation to inject a sense of realism to these robots.

Disney Imagineers, likewise, used motion-capture data to give it a more realistic feel, and enable Baby Groot to connect with the audience.
 
Earlier this year at the South by Southwest tech festival, a similar version of what looked like Judy Hopps from Zootopia was demonstrated roller skating around the stage. And in more everyday uses, a similar type of robot can already be seen in the park in the form of Grogu from The Mandalorian. He might not be free-roaming per se, but he can be seen nestled in Din Djarin’s carrier, blinking and moving his head around in response to guests.
 
Fans are still a ways off from meeting and dancing alongside Baby Groot in real life to the Awesome Mix, but the tech seems to be a promising step forward in bringing all types of characters from Disney’s ever-growing roster to life.

 
 
 
[via Interesting Engineering and Gizmodo, screenshots via Disney Parks]