WDW Daily News

Engineers routinely face tradeoffs as they design robotic limbs – weight vs. speed, ease of control vs. fluidity. A new hybrid fluid transmission developed at Disney Research Pittsburgh promises to eliminate some of those tradeoffs, making possible robot arms that are light enough to move swiftly and gracefully, yet with precise control.

The transmission consists of antagonist pairs of rolling diaphragm cylinders – similar to traditional hydraulic cylinders, but sealed with a rubber diaphragm instead of sliding seals and valves. The result is a system that can efficiently transmit power with little friction. Yet it is also “backdriveable,” capable of absorbing energy, as well as transmitting it.

The latter characteristic allows engineers to design limbs with “give,” an important feature as designers contemplate new applications in the home, at work, or in entertainment venues that enable soft interactions between people and robots.

“We’ve combined the best elements of a hydraulic system with the best elements of an electric motor system,” said Peter Whitney, an associate research scientist at Disney Research Pittsburgh. The transmission allows robot limbs to be light, strong and graceful, he explained, while driving them with easily controlled, low-friction motors. The motors, which normally would add significant weight to the limbs, can be mounted on the robot body instead.

The system transmits force so efficiently that Whitney and a Disney Research Pittsburgh lab associate, Tianyao Chen, found they could build an entirely passive “puppet” system, moving one robot arm by manipulating a second robot arm linked to it with the transmission. The system is notably sensitive to tactile feedback from the puppet arm. One possible application of a system made of non-ferrous material would be as a surgical robot compatible with use in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device, Whitney suggested.

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Disney Interactive and Disney Consumer Products teamed up for their first Hack Days event at offices around the country. More than 300 employees participated and created 45 hacks which were reviewed by a team of executives and leaders and submitted for patent approval.

oday, Disney Accelerator powered by Techstars culminates in a Demo Day where its 10 participating companies will present their businesses to the investment and entrepreneurial communities, industry leaders and Disney executives. The Disney Accelerator participants have just finished a 15-week immersive program that gave them access to mentorship from more than 60 Disney executives as well as 70 entrepreneurs and investors from the business community, up to $120K in investment capital to develop their companies and special access to Disney resources from across the company.

The participating companies have reached many significant milestones during the Disney Accelerator. At Demo Day, Smart Toy, a company that makes toys that teach, talk, and interact with children, announced today that it has been acquired by Cartwheel Kids, a Los Angeles-based manufacturer of children’s products. In addition, SnowShoe announced that it had secured $2.2 million in seed financing and Choremonster and Codarica both launched mobile apps. Sphero also introduced its new Ollie product during the program, and Twigtale named as its editor-in-chief Dr. Harvey Karp, the renowned pediatrician and child development specialist.

“This group of start-ups has made tremendous progress evolving and growing their businesses in the past fifteen weeks,” said Kevin Mayer, Disney’s Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Business Development. “It has been a fantastic learning experience for them and an opportunity for Disney to get in on the ground floor with a new generation of innovators. We look forward to the opportunity to work with all of these companies moving forward and to meeting a new set of participants next year.”

The companies participating in Disney Accelerator are:

• ChoreMonster – ChoreMonster unites parents and kids with the most ridiculously fun and motivating family framework, so every home is a joyful place. choremonster.com
• Codarica – Codarica creates seriously fun games that teach kids to code. codarica.com
• Jogg – Jogg is a mobile video platform that changes the direction of how we engage our audience. joggapp.co
• Naritiv – Naritiv is a marketing and analytics platform for micro-content, starting with Snapchat. naritiv.com
• Sidelines – Sidelines is a people-powered content marketing platform that drives brand influence through discussions by expert fans. sidelinesapp.com
• Smart Toy – Smart Toy is a learning toy that talks and listens to kids. Smart Toy can be customized to know your child’s name, teach lessons, and much more. smarttoylabs.com
• SnowShoe – SnowShoe creates magic with a touch of plastic. SnowShoe-powered objects unlock digital content through your smartphone. snowshoestamp.com
• Sphero – Sphero is the connected play company, fusing digital and physical play by creating toys and robots that you control with a smart device. gosphero.com
• Twigtale – Twigtale builds happier families through personalization and expert-fueled storytelling. twigtale.com
• TYFFON – TYFFON makes entertaining apps that put you in the center of the fun — founded by the creators of the ZombieBooth series, with over 30 million downloads. tyffon.com

Apple will reportedly include near-field communication in its upcoming smartwatch, or iWatch, in a move that would take a concept from Disney and scale it to the masses.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the iWatch would have NFC technology, which enables data transfer and mobile payments on smartphones.

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Drones may be going to Disneyland. Though they may sound like they could exist only in Tomorrowland, Disney is working on ways to use drones in its entertainment productions.

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Disney Research and ETH have created a new kind of display – the pixels are small colorful mobile robots which create cartoon-like images or animations. These are the ‘Pixelbots’. Pixelbots can be seen on the Disney Research YouTube channel, where they present a ‘Story of the Universe’ animation including a fish, a dinosaur, and a human.

Pixelbots are two-wheeled robots. They can make robotic images on tabletops or on whiteboards (using magnetic wheels). It’s possible to sketch on an iPad and see the Pixelbots move into position to create the drawing, or to direct them by pointing motions. Altogether, it’s a whole new way of looking at cartoon images and animations. These are ‘Pixels with Personality’!