During one of the grand opening events for the new Zootopia at Shanghai Disney Resort, Disney Experiences Josh D’Amaro took the stage to share more about the new experience and future projects from Walt Disney Imagineering. At one point, his speech was even crashed by an advanced animatronic of Duke Weaselton, which you can check out in our full video below.
Duke is a demonstration of the next iteration of robotic technology, which Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development (R&D) and Disney Research first displayed earlier this year at the South By Southwest (SXSW) conference. At SXSW, Disney Imagineers unveiled an untethered, dynamic robotic character on skates that could steady itself and even perform a somersault — movements humans can relate to that generate emotional connections with the bunny character.
With Duke, Imagineers have combined the ability to do all kinds of dynamic maneuvers, with their expertise in building expressive, animated faces. This is just another example of how Disney is taking creativity to new heights through technological breakthroughs in storytelling.
While Disney won’t share many of the details of how Imagineers brought Duke to life, or where you might see similar robotic technology in the future, they can share one secret: to pull off this achievement required not one, but two robots working together in sync. Not only was Duke a robotic figure, but so was the kiosk itself!
Zootopia is now open at the Shanghai Disney Resort for all to enjoy.
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