An absolutely adorable trio of emotive unnamed droid figures that we cannot resist calling anything other than Huey, Dewey, and Louie were spotted last week cavorting inside Disneyland as part of a Walt Disney Imagineering play test.
Last week, the three figures were seen in a play test at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge as Imagineers and guests witnessed the adorable automaton. As Walt Disney Imagineering explores new technologies and new ways to help them innovate their storytelling abilities, fans will sometimes be witness to the wonderfully frustrating development stage of play testing. It is not expected that they will return following last the completion of last week’s play test.
When Walt Disney Imagineering uses play testing, it serves multiple purposes including gauge guest reaction to see how such technology could be used in the future. The video shown above features some of the incredible adaptiveness of the figures, able to respond in real time to unexpected changes in their environment such as bumpy roads or accidental bumps.
“Designing a bipedal robotic character with impeccable balance is impressive, but simply isn’t enough when you consider Disney characters strut, prance, sneak, tromp, shuffle, hustle, saunter or meander. Disney Research recently unveiled a new robotic character prototype that combines procedural animation, modular hardware, and reinforcement learning to be able to design and program a walking character capable of these unique gaits and traits. Even more impressive? They can do this within months, not years! The ability to have a new robot design learn to imitate artistic motion in a simulation environment before it’s being built advances Imagineering’s innovation pipeline … and we can’t wait to see what more can be done with this exploration!”
— Walt Disney Imagineering
These Huey, Dewey, and Louie droids aren’t actually the first time we’ve seen droid play testing with droids. At the D23 Expo in 20217, ahead of the official opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, we also got to see some play testing with a droid figure that Imagineers at the time were calling Jake. You can watch video of that play test experience below.
MORE INFO: WATCH: This is Jake… from Galaxy’s Edge; he was at the #D23Expo
In the meantime, you can see video released by Disney of the adorable droids at Disneyland.
@disneyparks These new visitors spotted in Batuu are so cute 🥹🤖 #Disney #DisneyParks #StarWarsGalaxysEdge #StarWars #Disneyland #Droids #Imagineers #STEM #Technology
See it for Yourself
For now, there’s no confirmed announcement of these droids returning to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
