Disney Develops Humanoid Robot Capable Of Playing Catch And Juggling With You

 Robotics

Disney Research has developed a robot that allows for more interaction with users via the act of playing catch.  The system uses a device like a Kinect to track and position the robot`s hand for catching and throwing and has preset animations for misses and head tracking that produce a natural user interface.

E ntertainment robots in theme park environments typically do not allow for physical interaction and contact with guests. With this in mind, Disney Research has developed a robot that allows for more interaction via the act of playing catch.

In the use case, catching and throwing back objects is one form of physical engagement that still maintains a safe distance between the robot and participants.

Using a theme park type animatronic humanoid robot, the researchers developed a test bed for a throwing and catching game scenario. Using an external ASUS Xtion PRO LIVE camera system that is similar to a Microsoft Kinect to locate balls and a Kalman filter to predict ball destination and timing, the robot's hand and joint-space are calibrated to the vision coordinate system using a least-squares technique. This way the hand can be positioned to the predicted location.

Successful catches are thrown back two and a half meters forward to the participant, and missed catches are detected to trigger suitable animations that indicate failure such as shrugging its shoulders or looking behind itself.

Human to robot partner juggling (three ball cascade pattern, one hand for each partner) is also achieved by speeding up the catching/throwing cycle. We tested the throwing/catching system on six participants (one child and five adults, including one elderly), and the juggling system on three skilled jugglers. —

Pretty impressive, or as one YouTube user commented, "First, juggling balls. Next, grenades."





SOURCE  Disney Research Hub

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