[HN Gopher] Disney's robots use rockets to stick the landing
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Disney's robots use rockets to stick the landing
Author : rbanffy
Score : 217 points
Date : 2024-05-13 10:52 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (spectrum.ieee.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org)
| pqdbr wrote:
| I'd love to be able to visit Disney Imagineering. Much more than
| the Disney parks themselves actually.
| brk wrote:
| I've worked with Imagineers on some projects in the last few
| years. Not a lot I can say publicly, other than it really was
| interesting to see how much effort goes into creating and
| preserving a specific theme/mood/vibe for the rides. Textures,
| colors, smells, finishes.
|
| Stuff that usually only gets a passing acknowledgement in other
| projects (eg: we'd prefer if the [thing] could be painted to
| match the walls) becomes "Can we completely disassemble [thing]
| and embed its components into [other thing]?" Guest experience,
| and safety, receive a lot of attention, which creates some fun
| problems to solve.
| borski wrote:
| How did you get into this? How does one get into it?
| financetechbro wrote:
| With the power of imagination
| dagmx wrote:
| I have several friends who are or were imagineers.
|
| The question you ask is very wide unfortunately because it
| is such a wide job.
|
| Imagineers cover everything from software engineers working
| on robotics, to machine learning, computer vision, or data
| management. There's hardware engineers, rendering
| engineers, people responsible for traditional costume
| design with fabric etc, animators, civil engineers etc...
|
| Like any other job, there's no real secret to getting in
| though. You just need to know what roles are there and see
| what fits you. Coming from an entertainment background
| certainly helps (games, feature animation, visual effects)
| but isn't a hard requirement either.
|
| There are Imagineering documentaries and behind the scenes
| on YouTube and Disney+ that give you an insight into what
| goes into it.
| krisoft wrote:
| One would think visiting their career page is a good start:
| https://sites.disney.com/waltdisneyimagineering/careers/
| borski wrote:
| One would think I might have already looked there
| previously, and was asking about personal experience from
| someone who has worked as an imagineer, not looking for a
| generic list of bullet points in a job req. :)
|
| But thanks.
| brk wrote:
| In my domain I am known as a bit of a problem solver/out of
| the box thinker. So when people get into a scenario they
| don't have a ready answer to, they reach out to me. In this
| case, a contact of mine works closely with Disney, and
| other theme parks, and when they ask his company for
| something unusual he typically calls me up (it also helps
| that I'm in Tampa, not too far away).
|
| IOW, I guess the answer, as it often is, is "networking".
| borski wrote:
| Thanks, that makes sense. I'm similarly "that guy" that
| gets called for scenarios like that, but in CA, which is
| why I asked about Disney specifically.
|
| Thank you for the insight!
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| With a good deal of luck, they seem to hardly ever have any
| openings in that dept, and when they do its for senior
| roles.
| duxup wrote:
| Disney's secret sauce when it comes to parks / experiences
| always seems to be that extra layer of polish and effort. One
| of those things that you maybe couldn't list all the details
| you did, but you absolutely know is there in the background
| somehow.
| dhosek wrote:
| There's also the fact that (a) the line experience is
| usually an entertainment in itself and (2) the rides last
| longer than typical theme park rides (on this last, I
| remember being at Magic Mountain chaperoning a youth field
| trip and I started timing the ride experiences and the big
| rides (rollercoasters, etc.) lasted around 60 seconds. I
| never timed any of the equivalent rides at Disneyland,1 but
| I'm pretty sure they lasted longer.
|
| [?]
|
| 1. I took my kids to Disney World last year and found the
| Magic Kingdom to be disappointing compared to Disneyland.
| With the exception of Space Mountain, the ride experience
| of the equivalent Disneyland ride was better at Disneyland.
| Pirates of the Caribbean in the Magic Kingdom is actually
| only half the ride that it is in Disneyland.
| Reubachi wrote:
| You are officially the only person in disney park-going
| history to prefer orlando Space Mountain over DL Space
| mountain. So painful, old, dark, and rusty.
| duxup wrote:
| I can't compare, but I like Disney World Space Mountain
| out of a sense of nostalgia. Some of the rides are sort
| of neat time capsules.
| a1o wrote:
| It's a great experience if you went young and later with
| kids
| Tempest1981 wrote:
| Not the same, I know, but Disney+ TV has this series:
|
| https://www.disneyplus.com/series/the-imagineering-story/6ry...
|
| And going way back, Epcot plans:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLCHg9mUBag
| marckrn wrote:
| I had a tour of Imagineering nearly a decade ago, and it was
| truly magical, leaving a lasting impression on me. It felt akin
| to what I imagine Xerox PARC or Bell Labs were like in their
| heydays.
|
| AMA.
| sp332 wrote:
| Why does this page push so many entries into my back button?
|
| Edit: If I scroll to the bottom very quickly, it only adds one
| extra. It seems to add them when I stop scrolling, but not every
| time. And never when I scroll up. This is on Firefox for Android.
| ramraj07 wrote:
| Without looking - bad react code?
| beeboobaa3 wrote:
| React has absolutely nothing to do with the history stack.
| Sure there are routing libraries that build on react that do,
| but... Not react.
|
| But yes, obviously it's some bad javascript code.
| emayljames wrote:
| Microsoft websites are bad for this too. Not sure if is
| deliberate, as it used to be a dark pattern back in the IE
| days.
| mrguyorama wrote:
| No, this is just Microsoft dealing with the way they do web-
| based backwards compatibility and routing old as shit links
| to their modern infra, which usually involves six redirects
| emayljames wrote:
| also, wow that is an obsene amount of libraries they use:
| https://builtwith.com/?https%3a%2f%2fspectrum.ieee.org%2fdis...
| scoot wrote:
| BuiltWith isn't remotely accurate.
| elaus wrote:
| What are the main issues with it's assessment of the
| discussed page?
| scoot wrote:
| Based on a website I'm familiar with the inner workings
| of, it lists many things incorrectly.
| numpad0 wrote:
| Are there ways to disable just specific JS APIs?
| robbiet480 wrote:
| Great to see Grant Imahara in here unexpectedly. The former
| Mythbusters co-host died suddenly a few years ago from a brain
| aneurysm.
| GauntletWizard wrote:
| Yeah, seeing his picture here was a bit bittersweet - it caught
| me unsurprised, and hit like a gut punch, but it's good to see
| he's remembered and his legacy lives on
| duxup wrote:
| Mythbusters, Grant, taught me that just dorking around and
| trying things is as much a part of engineering when it comes to
| smart people as it is for anyone else.
|
| I always assumed they just "did the math" and knew what to do,
| but rather when just trying things like anyone else they can
| discover some surprises and solutions that they don't expect.
| space_oddity wrote:
| Due to Mythbusters I was really into engineering
| flkiwi wrote:
| Kinda stopped me in my tracks a bit. Nice to see him and his
| contributions noted, as I'm going to guess that they were more
| significant than the task in the photo.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| I've been watching some Mythbusters again recently. It is
| always bittersweet to see hom on screen. He is much missed.
| hooby wrote:
| "Rapid Unstructured Energy Dissipation" is a nice euphemism for
| the robot crashing into pieces...
|
| but I really feel there's a missed opportunity there, to come up
| with something that abbreviates to "S.P.L.A.T." rather then
| "R.U.E.D." ;)
| lupire wrote:
| Mission ended with Bits Outside Original Mechanism
| frabert wrote:
| see also: Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly
|
| or, from the Kerbal Space Program fanbase: lithobraking (as
| opposed to aerobraking)
| mrguyorama wrote:
| I believe NASA has actually used "lithobraking" in an
| official capacity at some point.
| stritafarm wrote:
| Rapid Unstructured Dissipation of Energy
|
| RUDE
| promiseofbeans wrote:
| - Sudden Parts Loss And Tearing
|
| - Spontaneous Pieces Leaving And Tumbling
|
| - Surprising Pieces Launching And Toppling
| kayodelycaon wrote:
| Lithobraking is a favorite of mine.
| flkiwi wrote:
| Spontaneous Proximate Lithobrake Acceleration Termination.
| DylanSp wrote:
| Observed Hazardous Spontaneous High Impact Terminations.
| jack_riminton wrote:
| Crazy how Disney's R&D looks almost indistinguishable from Darpa
| sometimes
| giancarlostoro wrote:
| I miss when companies invested in R&D. Just think if companies
| paid you 1-2 hours of your day to do either R&D or open source
| projects, how many advancements we could have. Theres all sorts
| of open source projects stalled because not enough time or
| money.
|
| I imagine some might fix bugs management isnt prioritizing, or
| performance issues, and so on.
| airstrike wrote:
| tech companies still invest in R&D, but that's mostly adtech
| these days
| gdiamos wrote:
| that sounds really sad
| airstrike wrote:
| agreed... we should rename it sadtech
| twodave wrote:
| While I agree with the sentiment in your first paragraph, I
| think the idea of the second sounds like either working sub-
| optimally (fixing bugs that don't need fixing) or else too
| much management ineptitude to overcome by fixing critical
| bugs for a couple hours per day that management just wants to
| ignore.
| thfuran wrote:
| Every bug needs fixing. Some are just more profitable to
| fix.
| waiquoo wrote:
| It does happen like that, lot's of departments within big
| companies have R&D focus with time dedicated to
| development/discovery. The problem is that the output is
| captured. If it doesn't end up in a product, the general
| public will never know
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| Closest to R&D we're getting is hackathons and the like, and
| in practice it's trying out new technology that someone else
| developed; coming up and developing something new in IT is
| really difficult, and said development takes time for which
| you need buy-in first.
|
| That said, I'm sure there's still dedicated R&D at companies
| like Google and the like. Or maybe that's just wishful
| thinking.
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| It still happens, but it's getting more challenging due to
| outsourcing of manufacturing.
| macgiysap wrote:
| Unfortunately the tax treatment no longer incentivizes this.
| Accounting practices that in the past allowed for this
| activity to be booked as an asset are no longer in use. Lower
| corporate rates no longer necessitate liability offsets that
| in the past fueled r&d budgets. Instead we have stock buy
| backs! Yippee!
| hondo77 wrote:
| Apparently Disney is playing the long game.
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| Reminds me of the MKV-L ballistic missile interceptor tests:
| simple physics, with impressive engineering implementation [0].
|
| 0 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBMU6l6GsdM (the rapid fire
| rockets are a little loud)
| benliong78 wrote:
| dude, that's freaking nuts. It's amazing and terrifying at
| the same time.
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| And it looks small, but it's 1.6 meters long (over 5 feet)
| and fully fueled would weigh ~200kg/~500 lbs!!!
| mrguyorama wrote:
| Note that in an actual intercept, this thing is in space
| and going like 10km/s. It's job is to slam directly into an
| incoming Ballistic Missile re-entry craft before it can
| deploy nukes and decoys.
|
| The giant nozzle pointed downwards is simulating 0-gravity,
| and probably does not exist on live fired craft.
|
| Those thrusters must be extremely precision controlled too.
| At that flight profile, having a nozzle open an extra
| millisecond means missing the intercept by hundreds of
| feet.
|
| And a Nuke hitting DC
| bayindirh wrote:
| Considering they did first small-room-sized wireless
| electricity distribution, I'm not sure they're _that different_
| from DARPA in terms of know-how and amount of secret sauce.
| FrustratedMonky wrote:
| AI driven robots destroying the world, often look like
| Terminators.
|
| But they might look like the Mouse.
| amelius wrote:
| They will look fluffy and cute. Because humans will not accept
| anything else.
| swores wrote:
| If they're heavily armed and hard to destroy then most humans
| might not have a choice whether or not to accept them
| regardless of whether they're cute and fluffy or barebones
| metal soldiers.
| amelius wrote:
| Only if they come in large numbers. Which will probably not
| be the case initially.
| borski wrote:
| Sure, but if they're cute and fluffy we may just accept
| them as our overlords without a fight.
| space_oddity wrote:
| Being cute and fluffy is always a bonus
| eastbound wrote:
| It's called neoteny, it's when animals keep their youth
| traits longer when domesticated than when wild.
|
| Example: Adults cats purr, while wild cats don't. Because
| looking cute (or sounding cute) has a drastic effect on
| survival in domesticated environments.
| XCSme wrote:
| Gyroscopic motion feels like magic, like the magnetic force.
| jam wrote:
| Would love a "parachute" that works like this...
| bitwize wrote:
| Disney is about to patent falling with style if they haven't
| already.
|
| And it involves FLUDD's hover mode.
|
| Sometimes the universe just seems committed to making you smile.
| importantbrian wrote:
| I wonder if to get rid of the fans they could use a control
| moment gyroscope or reaction wheels.
| btown wrote:
| Fun fact: Disney Imagineering (Lanny Smoot's team) has also
| invented a fully retractable, seamless-appearing lightsaber!
|
| https://patents.google.com/patent/US10065127B1/en
|
| As well as their HoloTile moving floor/omnidirectional treadmill,
| which has gotten significant press recently:
| https://www.fastcompany.com/91019277/a-disney-imagineer-expl...
| a1o wrote:
| Is there a video or pictures for the assembled lightsaber? I
| would be curious to see it!
| kibae wrote:
| There's a clip of it on a MKBHD video on a different Disney
| product [here](https://youtu.be/1KEtxTQUzxY?t=282).
| a1o wrote:
| That video was awesome, thank you!
|
| That is an impressive Lightsaber but holy, those tiles look
| super fun!!!
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