Disney's Robots Use Rockets To Stick The Landing

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Precision touchdowns: Disney's innovative solution for flying robots

The systems comprised water rocket propulsion, ducted fans, and piston-modeled feet for achieving controlled landings.

New-age storytellers use an innovative mixture of art, science, and technology to create immersive experiences.

To aid in such endeavors, engineers from Disney Research's robotics team have devised innovative solutions that give a soft landing to various flying robots and equipment used in the entertainment industry.

The team has released videos showcasing different technologies in action, including stick-shaped robots with thrusters and water rocket propulsion.

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Richard-Alexandre Peloquin, Tony Dohi, and Bill Sturgeon observe an early test of the full-system rocket test.

Finding a solution to these problems is a big, open-ended challenge. In the clip below, you can see one approach we've taken to start chipping away at it.

The video shows a small, stick-like robot with an array of four ducted fans attached to its top. The robot has a piston-like foot that absorbs the impact of a small fall, and then the ducted fans keep the robot standing by counteracting any tilting motion using aerodynamic thrust.

Raphael Pilon [left] and Marcela de los Rios evaluate the performance of the monopod balancing robot. Disney Research

The standing portion demonstrates that pushing on the air isn't only useful during freefall. Conventional walking and hopping robots depend on ground contact forces to maintain the required orientation. These forces can ramp up quickly because of the stiffness of the system, necessitating high bandwidth control strategies. Aerodynamic forces are relatively soft, but even so, they were sufficient to keep our robots standing. And since these forces can also be applied during the flight phase of running or hopping, this approach might lead to robots that run before they walk. The thing that defines a running gait is the existence of a "flight phase" - a time when none of the feet are in contact with the ground. A running robot with aerodynamic control authority could potentially use a gait with a long flight phase. This would shift the burden of the control effort to mid-flight, simplifying the leg design and possibly making rapid bipedal motion more tractable than a moderate pace.

In the next video, a slightly larger robot tackles a much more dramatic fall, from 65' in the air. This simple machine has two piston-like feet and a similar array of ducted fans on top. The fans not only stabilize the robot upon landing, they also help keep it oriented properly as it falls. Inside each foot is a plug of single-use compressible foam. Crushing the foam on impact provides a nice, constant force profile, which maximizes the amount of energy dissipated per inch of contraction.