A real-life Dr. Frankenstein?
Company: Walt Disney
Employee: Akhil Madhani
Job: Senior research scientist, Imagineering Research
Disney takes pride in hiding much of the work that makes the Magic Kingdom so magical, which includes all the technology behind Disney's rides and, increasingly, the robots that wander freely around the park.
One of the humans behind Disney's lifelike robots is Akhil Madhani, an "Imagineer" who is constantly searching for new ways to improve the robotics at the park. Madhani worked on Disney's first free-roaming robot, a dinosaur named Lucky that was built in 2005, and he recently helped build a life-sized, interactive Wall-E -- the eco-friendly android star of the eponymous Pixar film.
Madhani says guests respond in a special way to interactive robots: "That's really the payoff -- you see a child freeze and say, `Oh my God, it's Wall-E!' and that's it -- suddenly all this robotics technology is hidden." Delivering the type of reaction that Madhani describes is essential to Disney's business. "Guest expectations are rising," Madhani says, "If we don't do this, we're going to lose our guests."
But there are also broader uses for the technology, Madhani says: "What we're doing falls into the category of human-robot interaction. That's where I think Disney can excel and advance the field."
Employee: Akhil Madhani
Job: Senior research scientist, Imagineering Research
Disney takes pride in hiding much of the work that makes the Magic Kingdom so magical, which includes all the technology behind Disney's rides and, increasingly, the robots that wander freely around the park.
One of the humans behind Disney's lifelike robots is Akhil Madhani, an "Imagineer" who is constantly searching for new ways to improve the robotics at the park. Madhani worked on Disney's first free-roaming robot, a dinosaur named Lucky that was built in 2005, and he recently helped build a life-sized, interactive Wall-E -- the eco-friendly android star of the eponymous Pixar film.
Madhani says guests respond in a special way to interactive robots: "That's really the payoff -- you see a child freeze and say, `Oh my God, it's Wall-E!' and that's it -- suddenly all this robotics technology is hidden." Delivering the type of reaction that Madhani describes is essential to Disney's business. "Guest expectations are rising," Madhani says, "If we don't do this, we're going to lose our guests."
But there are also broader uses for the technology, Madhani says: "What we're doing falls into the category of human-robot interaction. That's where I think Disney can excel and advance the field."
NEXT: Nut inspector
Last updated May 18 2011: 8:41 AM ET
