Universal Files Patent for WALKING Animatronic

We’ve got some very exciting news out of Universal, especially if you’re someone who loves the way their newer animatronics have begun to move, or look forward to the future where they can seem even more real.

Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment

While we’ve heard that Universal has now filed a permit to build a new attraction in Epic Universe, there aren’t many details about what it could be at this time, other than that it’s being called Project 680 and was removed from the website soon after it was published. Now, a patent application has been filed — this time for a walking animatronic.

The patent is titled “Animated Figure Walking Mechanism,” and describes how Universal plans to create an animatronic that looks like it can actually walk. There’s a key distinction here that’s important to note — this isn’t a plan for an ambulatory robot, meaning one that could move around on its own, such as the new Olaf animatronic we’ve seen at World of Frozen. No, this animatronic would appear to walk using a system that would use a carrier coupled to a limb and a motor, along with a second limb, and then a hinge and sliding motor system.

Universal Patent

From the patent, it looks like the animatronic would move a few steps along a track, appearing to walk along it, but it wouldn’t be moving around on its own. The abstract on the application says that the system also “includes a carrier configured to be disposed on a support, and the animated figure extends away from a side of the carrier in a direction. The carrier is coupled to a first limb through a first actuator system, which is configured to move the first limb away from the side of the carrier in the direction and configured to slide an end of the first limb transversely relative to the direction. The carrier is translated relative to the support through a second actuator system. The system also includes a controller communicatively coupled to the first actuator system and the second actuator system and configured to coordinate actuation of the first actuator system and the second actuator system to provide an ambulatory effect.”

Frankenstein’s monster animatronic has gotten close to this effect

Now, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen an animatronic that walks on a specific pattern — we immediately think of the Benjamin Franklin animatronic that walks up the stairs in EPCOT’s American Adventure show (which was Disney’s first animatronic to ever walk up stairs), but it’s possible that what makes this patent different is that the whole body will appear to move as if it’s walking, not just the legs. So you know when your arms swing when you walk, or your torso slightly twists? Things like that. Or, perhaps, it’s just a newer way to make similar animatronics that already exist, function.

American Adventure

We’ll continue to keep you updated as we hear more about this patent, if it moves forward in any future project, so stay tuned to DFB!

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Where do you think Universal could use this patent? Tell us in the comments!

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