Disney's latest robot will bring Groot and other characters to life

Move over Spot, there's a new adorable robot in town, and this one may one day convince you, or more likely your kid, that their favorite Disney character is real. In a lengthy new piece, TechCrunch has detailed Project Kiwi, an in-development robotics platform from the company's Imagineering research and development studio. The result of now more than three years of work, it's a small robot that can move and act on its own and take the form of many different characters -- including, as you can see, Baby Groot. With Project Kiki, Imagineering set out to create a robotic actor that could one day interact with Disney theme parks guests and make them feel like they're face-to-face with their favorite characters. When the team started work on the project, there weren't any robots up to that task, so they began making their own.