Disney introduced Olaf - a funny animatronic that can be found at Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong
Disney has introduced a new animatronic that will greet visitors at the World of Frozen area in Disneyland Paris and temporarily in Hong Kong.
What is known
The Disney Imagineering team created a funny animatronic in the form of Olaf the snowman from the Frozen animated series.
The robot's movements were not programmed, as such an approach could not realize all the team's ambitions, but were created using reinforcement learning - recording human movements, which the robot would then repeat multiple times. This achieved incredible smoothness and a fairly high speed of movement. The robot's facial expressions are impressive too: the mouth movements match what he says, and the eyes look incredibly lively and realistic, albeit exaggeratedly cartoonish.
The Olaf robot can interact with Disneyland visitors and maintain a conversation, which will surely delight not only children but also their parents. Moreover, Disney Imagineering engineers have provided the ability to detach the carrot nose, and the robot does not malfunction or get upset, allowing a child (or adult) to reattach the nose.
Disney has often been criticized for unfulfilled grand promises regarding animatronics, and now Olaf can respond to all claims. If you watch the documentary video to the end, you can find out that the company is preparing several more robo-surprises.
