Stuntronics: Watch This Disney Robot Do Super-Flip Stunts

The following robot presentation was made by Disney Imagineering – a group making some terrifyingly delightful conceptual works a reality. The project includes a number of animatronics – robots you might see at a theme park – but also high-flying stunt double-like amalgamations of metal and smarts. These creations are called Stuntronics, and they've developed their way to a place that's unsettlingly realistic, to say the least.

These are stunt doubles not necessarily for humans, but for hero animatronic figures you might see at Disneyland. Disney Imagineering called these creations Stuntronics. Speaking with TechCrunch, Tony Dohi, Principle R&D Imagineer and Morgan Pope, Associate Research Scientist at Disney, explained the reason these robots exist.

Due to the advanced nature of computer graphics today, movie characters (in Disney films) are "really, really active," said Dohi. "And so that becomes the expectation our park guests have that our characters are doing all these things on screen — but when it comes to our attractions [in Disney theme parks], what are our animatronic figures doing? We realized we have kind of a disconnect here."

Inside these robots are a number of hardware bits you'll also find in your smartphone. Accelerometers and gyro-sensors tell the robot which way is up, which is down, and which way they happen to be situated at any given time. As you'll see in the video above, the robot re-adjusts itself in mid-air, making for a rather spectacular display.

Now that the group has the robot steadying itself and posing in mid-air, the next step is getting it to look real. Or rather, more human. This is all made for high-flying action in Disney Parks – we're excited to see it in films so we don't get as much rubberman effect. We're looking at you, every modern Marvel movie.