Navigation : EXPO21XX > ROBOTICS 21XX > H16: Service Robots > RoboThespian
Videos
Loading the player ...
  • Offer Profile
  • At Engineered Arts, we make the most memorable robotic experiences in the world. The unique combination of cutting edge technology and focus on public experiences means nothing in the world comes close to seeing one of our robots. Based in the UK, we have an extremely talented team of designers, engineers, artists and developers. All working together to produce hardware and software, that creates joy and entertainment in the most novel way.

    We use in-house manufacturing facilities to ensure rapid design, prototyping, testing and re-manufacturing. We are constantly innovating to ensure our robots are easy to use and hard to ignore. Our robots find homes as star attractions at theme parks and museums, research platforms at academic institutes and engaging presenters at corporate events
Product Portfolio
  • Our Humanoid Robots: RoboThespian & SociBot

      • RoboThespian

      • Introducing RoboThespian, the ultimate acting humanoid designed for human interaction in a public environment. The first and most iconic robot from Engineered Arts. Featuring an incredibly expressive range of movements and emotions, he is the perfect talking robot. The charming and elegant design is perfectly balanced and amazes wherever he travels. He is at home as an entertainer, salesman, an actor in a film or theatre or as a teacher. Just set him up and watch him go.  Robothespian can be animated on the fly, or ahead of time. He can also be inhabited remotely, making him the ultimate telepresence device.
      • Socibot

      • With many of the interactive features found on RoboThespian, SociBot is a great choice if your robot budget is limited, or you don’t have space for a full-sized humanoid. A desktop model, SociBot-Mini, is also available – perfect for research, or experimenting with at home.
      • Mesmer

      • Mesmer is a system for building lifelike humanoid robots – all the parts that are needed to breathe life into a character.

        • Hardware – Motors, Electronics and Connectors
        • Sensors – Cameras, Depth Sensors, LIDAR, Microphones
        • Firmware – Motor control for speed, position and torque
        • Software – For control of Animation, interaction, audio and lighting
      • Custom Robotic Commissions

      • RoboThespian and SociBot are very versatile communicators. But if you need something that is completely unique. We can offer a custom robotic commission option. The team at Engineered Arts covers all stages of robot development. With an extremely rapid design cycle, we can take a component all the way from early CAD to machining, implementation and testing within a day.
    • RoboThespian Model RT3

        • robothespian

        • Introducing RoboThespian, the ultimate acting humanoid designed for human interaction in a public environment. The first and most iconic robot from Engineered Arts. Featuring an incredibly expressive range of movements and emotions, he is the perfect talking robot. The charming and elegant design is perfectly balanced and amazes wherever he travels. He is at home as an entertainer, salesman, an actor in a film or theatre or as a teacher. Just set him up and watch him go. Robothespian can be animated on the fly, or ahead of time. He can also be inhabited remotely, making him the ultimate telepresence device.
        • all eyes on you

        • RoboThespian is the perfect prop for social media addicts to up their selfie game. Great for the selfie snapper of course, and an even better way of drawing more attention to a brand or attraction through social media. With a smart hashtag campaign, RoboThespian easily recruits other people to market for you. And because of his endless customisation, each one will be as unique as the people snapping the selfies.
        • SERIOUSLY GOOD ACTOR

        • RoboThespian steals the show wherever he goes. In this beautiful piece of theatre “Spillikin”, “There will be an internal “wow” when you first see “him”… come the end you will have forgotten it’s a robot.”. RoboThespian stars alongside 4 actors, in a touching play that explores the sensitive and very human themes, of love, death, betrayal, decay and disease. All handled extremely sensitively with RoboThespian playing a large role. This particular RoboThespian has been customised with our state of the art projected head, typically found on Socibot. This means a huge range of facial emotion can be accurately displayed with the subtle nuance, normally only achievable through human actors. RoboThespian can be ordered in this configuration, or with the classic face.
        • POWERFUL, UPGRADABLE, AFFORDABLE

        • At Engineered Arts, we are always innovating and improving our products. Our robots are rather smart and need powerful computing to run them, but in a form factor that makes life easier for our customers and engineers. This is why we use the proven platform of the Intel NUC. This provides the power and size required. It also has a huge support base already, making troubleshooting much easier. And because these computers are self contained, and have uniform dimensions and are in many other products outside of our robots, the economy of scale makes it very affordable for a customer to upgrade in the future.
        • Easy to use browser based 3D animation software included for free!

        • Want Custom?
          Just Ask

        • People love RoboThespian a lot. But if you just want to give him a little bit of extra uniqueness. Ask about customising the design to suit your needs. That’s exactly what Chicago Museum of Science and Industry did for their Robot Revolution Exhibit. Hence we designed and made a very lovable square-faced RoboThespian. Without sacrificing any of the benefits of a standard RoboThespian. He even gained a controllable blue LED antenna.
        • FULLY LOADED

        • RoboThespian comes with a packed library of impressions, greetings, songs and gestures. Routines include:
          • Toy Story
          • Sound of Music
          • Jaws
          • RoboCop
          • Celine Dion
          • Jungle Book
          • Lost in Space
          • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
          • Silence of the Lambs
          • Lord of the Rings
          • Singing in the Rain
          • I am not a Robot

          Also included:
          Custom content made specifically to suit your needs. (Purchase: 10mins, Rental: 5mins)
        • Imagine a robot that doesn’t behave like a robot.

        • A robot with natural intelligence. A robot that captivates and inspires wherever it goes. Introducing TinMan. Telepresence, by Engineered Arts. Now you can be the robot from anywhere in the world. TinMan hands you real-time control of RoboThespian or SociBot. Using inbuilt cameras and microphones, you can control its gaze, enter a natural conversation, and trigger content on the fly. Automated features like maintaining eye contact keep interaction compelling and believable. Allowing you to concentrate on the fun stuff. BLOWING PEOPLE’S MINDS! TinMan offers unrivalled levels of engagement and provides lasting positive memories about your business or attraction. Complex technology and clever design, disappear into simple intuitive use. Enabling truly breathtaking interaction, with no distractions, while instant visual feedback of the robot keeps you looking the part. This powerful software is packed into the simplicity of a browser. So no need to install anything. Designed from the ground up, TinMan works on desktop, tablet and even smartphone. So you can beam into any of your robots. Just log in and go.
        • Hand control to anybody.

        • All RoboThespians come with a rugged, public facing touchscreen kiosk. People can select languages, trigger content, animate the robot and see what its sensors see. The interface allows people of all ages and backgrounds to actively engage and control RoboThespian. The kiosk arrives ready to go with your pre-programmed content & languages already set up. Just plug in and go. As the robot administrator, you can use our web-based software to manage and customise, what your public can see and do on the kiosk. You can even upload your own graphics to the kiosk for a truly personalised interface.

          For users wishing to delve more deeply into the possibilities afforded by our robots, we provide an integrated developer environment where you can use Python to create your own control functions and subroutines for the robot. Use the robot’s many sensors to register data from the environment; control the hardware to make the robot truly responsive.

          To know him is to love him.
          RoboThespian is great looking: expressive, in tune with his emotions, talented, funny, intelligent, has a great job and loves to make people smile. It’s no wonder is he is a real hit wherever he travels. No matter the age or gender, people find him endearing. Meaning people are truly engaged when he delivers a message. Whether in a museum environment, making a sales pitch at a conference or delivering a rib tickling stand up comedy routine, it is guaranteed people will listen watch and enjoy the experience

          Want to know more?
          RoboThespian is complex machine made to be easy to operate. However, sometimes you might need some support. The first line of defence is the Engineered Arts wiki. This resource is jam packed with support items, tech specs and instructions. If you are still in need of support, our engineers can access and troubleshoot your robot from anywhere in the world.
      • socibot

          • socibot

          • With many of the interactive features found on RoboThespian, SociBot is a great choice if your robot budget is limited, or you don’t have space for a full-sized humanoid. A desktop model, SociBot-Mini, is also available – perfect for research, or experimenting with at home.

            Socibot’s eyes follow you around the room; the expression changes to reflect its mood (or yours!). SociBot can be a he, a she, or any character you care to invent.

            Socibot is a compact, sociable robot, designed for human-robot interaction in a more intimate setting. Containing all the processing power of RoboThespian compressed into a stand-alone kiosk or desktop device, SociBot is very powerful. The charm of Socibot lies in its sociable qualities. It has the ability to detect faces, features, emotions, speech and gestures. Furthermore, SociBot makes use of projective technology coupled with facial generation via parametric meshes to bring any character or image to life, in full 3D form.

            And with 40+ faces installed on your robot and the ability to add your own, Socibot is a truly versatile delivery system.
          • SERIOUSLY GOOD ACTOR

          • RoboThespian steals headlines, but SociBot provides the emotions, with his expressive projected face. In this beautiful piece of theatre “Spillikin”, “There will be an internal “wow” when you first see “him”… come the end you will have forgotten it’s a robot.”. RoboThespian stars alongside 4 actors, in a touching play that explores the sensitive and very human themes, of love, death, betrayal, decay and disease. All handled extremely sensitively with RoboThespian playing a large role. This particular RoboThespian has been customised with our state of the art projected head, typically found on Socibot. This means a huge range of facial emotion can be accurately displayed with the subtle nuance, normally only achievable through human actors. RoboThespian can be ordered in this configuration, or with the classic face.
          • POWERFUL, UPGRADABLE, AFFORDABLE

          • At Engineered Arts, we are always innovating and improving our products. Our robots are rather smart and need powerful computing to run them, but in a form factor that makes life easier for our customers and engineers. This is why we use the proven platform of the Intel NUC. This provides the power and size required. It also has a huge support base already, making troubleshooting much easier. And because these computers are self contained, and have uniform dimensions and are in many other products outside of our robots, the economy of scale makes it very affordable for a customer to upgrade in the future.
          • Easy to use browser based 3D animation software included for free!

          • FULLY LOADED

          • SociBot comes with a packed library of impressions, greetings, songs and gestures. Routines include:
            • Toy Story
            • Sound of Music
            • Jaws
            • RoboCop
            • Celine Dion
            • Jungle Book
            • Lost in Space
            • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
            • Silence of the Lambs
            • Lord of the Rings
            • Singing in the Rain
            • I am not a Robot
          • socibot-mini

          • The best things come in small packages
            SociBot Mini integrates the core technologies of RoboThespian in a desktop-sized robot. Extra ports and multiple Ethernet connections make it easy to interface with your choice of hardware. The projective head and fully articulated neck make SociBot even more expressive than its larger sibling. Ideal for individual researchers, small-footprint telepresence, or just for playing around with at home, SociBot offers a simple and affordable introduction to advanced robotics.

            SociBot can track the position of more than 12 people at a time, even in a crowd. It can also detect gestures like hand waves and body poses. The internal head projector can map any face onto any mould – talk to us about customizing your facial features and projection options. See our Technology section for more details.

            Imagine a robot that doesn’t behave like a robot.
            A robot with natural intelligence. A robot that captivates and inspires wherever it goes. Introducing TinMan. Telepresence, by Engineered Arts. Now you can be the robot from anywhere in the world. TinMan hands you real-time control of RoboThespian or SociBot. Using inbuilt cameras and microphones, you can control its gaze, enter a natural conversation, and trigger content on the fly. Automated features like maintaining eye contact keep interaction compelling and believable. Allowing you to concentrate on the fun stuff. BLOWING PEOPLE’S MINDS! TinMan offers unrivalled levels of engagement and provides lasting positive memories about your business or attraction. Complex technology and clever design, disappear into simple intuitive use. Enabling truly breathtaking interaction, with no distractions, while instant visual feedback of the robot keeps you looking the part. This powerful software is packed into the simplicity of a browser. So no need to install anything. Designed from the ground up, TinMan works on desktop, tablet and even smartphone. So you can beam into any of your robots. Just log in and go.

          • Hand control to anybody.

          • Apart from SociBot mini, Socibots use an integrated rugged, public facing touchscreen kiosk. People can select languages, trigger content, animate the robot and see what its sensors see. The interface allows people of all ages and backgrounds to actively engage and control SociBot. The kiosk arrives ready to go with your pre-programmed content & languages already set up. Just plug in SociBot and go. As the robot administrator, you can use our web-based software to manage and customise, what your public can see and do on the kiosk. You can even upload your own graphics to the kiosk for a truly personalised interface.

            For users wishing to delve more deeply into the possibilities afforded by our robots, we provide an integrated developer environment where you can use Python to create your own control functions and subroutines for the robot. Use the robot’s many sensors to register data from the environment; control the hardware to make the robot truly responsive.

            To know SociBot is to love SociBot
            SociBot is great looking: expressive, in tune with its emotions, talented, funny, intelligent, has a great job and loves to make people smile. It’s no wonder it’s a real hit wherever it travels. No matter the age or gender, people find SociBot endearing. Meaning people are truly engaged when it delivers a message. Whether in a museum environment, making a sales pitch at a conference or delivering a rib tickling stand up comedy routine, it is guaranteed people will listen, watch and enjoy the experience.

            Want to know more?

            SociBot is complex machine made to be easy to operate. However, sometimes you might need some support. The first line of defence is the Engineered Arts wiki. This resource is jam packed with support items, tech specs and instructions. If you are still in need of support, our engineers can access and troubleshoot your robot from anywhere in the world.
        • mesmer

        • Welcome to Mesmer
          Advanced Technology for creating Entertainment Robots
            • Anatomically Inspired Robotic Hardware Design

            • We have designed our mechanics to closely mimic human anatomy. A neck with vertebrae that curl and twist. These beauties are more than skin deep. Character animation requires smooth quiet motion. So we developed our own powerful, silent, high torque motors to meet the challenge. With state of the art integrated controllers, every motor has full control of speed, acceleration, torque and position. Motion without compromise.
            • What is Mesmer?

            • Mesmer is a system for building lifelike humanoid robots – all the parts that are needed to breathe life into a character.
              • Hardware – Motors, Electronics and Connectors
              • Sensors – Cameras, Depth Sensors, LIDAR, Microphones
              • Firmware – Motor control for speed, position and torque
              • Software – For control of Animation, interaction, audio and lighting

              Most importantly all of these components were designed from scratch by Engineered Arts specifically for humanoid robots, so everything fits and works together in perfect harmony. Other companies use a hodgepodge of bits from various vendors that often don’t work well together.

              Mesmer is powerful, elegant and cost-effective because you are not paying for multiple profit margins that inflate the price.

              Animation Software for Humans… not Programmers
              With Mesmer, robot animation has never been this intuitive. Robotics is no longer the domain of coders and IT geniuses. Mesmer’s Virtual Robot software hands control to the artists and creatives. An accurate 3D model that lives in your browser, mimics the capabilities of your real robot. This coupled with human-friendly animation tools, including keyframes, drag and drop movement and instant playback. No more plotting points on a graph, or having your vision poorly executed by a technician. Once you’re happy with your work, instantly transfer to the robot, whether you are in the same room or the other side of the world. With Mesmer’s Virtual Robot, if you can dream it, you can create it.
          • Robot Theater

          • High Drama… Without the Drama
            After 13 years in the business, Engineered Arts is returning to its theatrical roots. We have developed & refined a turnkey solution for robotic theatre installations. A totally integrated system, robots, movement tracks, animation software, touchscreen control, lighting & external device control, & sound system integration. We can even animate the content for you! It’s modular nature means, the scale of the system is massively flexible, from 1 robot and a light, to 20 robots, 10 stage lights & 4 robotic-controlled projectors. The choice is yours. No matter the complexity of the system, Engineered Arts make your robotic theatre easy to use & hard to ignore.
              • Once, Twice, Three times the Robot…

              • RoboThespian steals the show wherever he goes. Our standard Theatre comes with a whopping 3 RTs! RoboThespian features a large range of movements in the torso, neck face, arms, hands and fingers. And now, RT can be purchased with squatting legs for even more dynamic movement. RoboThespian has a simple but very expressive face. With customisable, larger than life LCD eyes, that can be animated to accurately portray the robot’s emotion at any given moment. Automatically generated lip-sync. And of-course RGB LEDs in the cheeks, so he can blush when embarrassed, or be green with envy. All of this emotive power is tripled by the sheer fact there are 3 robots included in the robotic theatre package.

                Robots That Move…
                Having 3 robots on stage, stuck to one spot, would be pretty weird, and would limit creative options massively. That’s why we developed Smooth Mover. A smooth motorised base and track. Which allows the robots to effortlessly glide and spin into position. Just like RoboThespian, this can be animated easily in Virtual Robot. The track is constructed using Bosch Rexroth components. This makes it very easy to create custom length tracks depending on customer needs. This helps to keep the cost low and the quality high.
              • Virtual Robot, Real Easy

              • Programming robots is normally very tricky unless you’re super computer genius. Now imagine doing this for 3 robots, 3 smooth movers, 3 stage lights and projector, all for a 45 minute show. A mammoth and largely unmanageable task. It’d be much easier if you drag your robots, lights around a virtual stage and see any changes you want to make instantly. Without ever having to know a scrap of code. All whilst seeing and hearing how each individual element works in relation to the rest of the set up. With Virtual robot, you can do just this. All within the comfort of a browser.
              • Relax… It’s all Under Control

              • The robots are your amazing actors, but even the best thespians need a stage & lights so as to be seen. Our software allows control of 3rd party hardware that uses the industry standard DMX control. This can include stage lighting, robotic arms, smoke machines etc. These devices can be placed on a 3D stage inside or animation software virtual robot. From there, drag & drop & animation is a breeze. Videos & sounds effects can be easily placed on the timeline, and automatically sync to all the devices in your show. Leaving you to concentrate on the creative stuff, whilst we make it all work.
              • Change your Characters in a Snap!

              • RoboThespian faces have always been changeable. But until now, it was always a bit tricky, using small screws & a bit of patience. This meant is wasn’t very quick to change a face, and could be tricky to do in the dark (most theatres). Now that’s all changed. Faces are quickly secured with a series of magnets. Place the face close to the head and is snaps itself into place. Removing the face is as simple pulling it away from the head. No tools, no losing screws. Just simple, quick & easy.

                This opens up the possibility of quick turn around of additional performances that contain different characters. This small detail can vastly increase the value of your asset.
              • Time to see the light…

              • As humans, we have very strong subconscious emotional reaction to colour. Equipped with RGB LEDs, RoboThespians are able to exploit this sensitivity to colour extremely effectively. They are also useful for differentiating between characters. With 8-bits per colour channel, the LEDs are able to approximately produce 16,777,216 different colours. All lighting is animated using Virtual Robot. Fill your villain with a putrid green and make sure your crowd are disgusted. Flush your hero in red when they feel love. Make your audience gasp when a cherished character dies, and her lights slowly fade to nothing. Using light and colour this way, allows us to see inside the soul of the characters, and increases the impact of performance. Not something that can be replicated by human actors.
              • Built to last…

              • Version one of our Robotic Theatre was purchased by Copernicus Science Centre. In 7 years of service it completed over 20,000 performances. These numbers are impressive. But how do they compare to more traditional productions? Let’s look at the longest-running theatre show in the world. The London production of Les Miserables. Running since 1985, by October 25th, 2014 it had been performed a stunning 12000 times. This is still a full 8000 fewer performances than the robotic theatre in Copernicus, and Les Mis had an additional 22 years to make up the shortfall. A rough calculation comparing the two performances helps to give an idea of the efficiency the robotic theatre provides. Based on the figures above Les Mis averaged approx 1.1 performances a day. Contrasting with Copernicus’ 8!

                8 performances a day!

                Now on version two, we developed and improved upon version one making it easier to use, maintain, with better movement, newer model robots, better animation software to name a few of the improvements.
              • Online, On Form

              • All elements of Robotic theatre systems are securely connected to the internet. This means performances can be triggered remotely. You can easily update content on the theatre from anywhere in the world. And importantly, most technical problems can be troubleshot remotely from our team of engineers. This minimises downtime, and increases efficiency when creating content too.
              • Robotic Theatre? Sounds Good

              • The theatre system, is able to scale its audio power depending on the size of it’s auditorium. It uses a combination of a line out into a PA system and an on-board speaker on each robot. The PA provides rich powerful sound that fills the room, and the on board speaker provides directional sound for each robot. This is especially useful for audience members who are sat close to the stage. This mimics how a theatre production would run with humans. The main amplification of the actor comes from the PA system, but those sat close to the action would here the voice of the actor directly from their mouth. The robot speaker only pushes out sound when that specific robot is talking. Best of all, the process is automated. Saving a huge amount of time in the animation & review process.
            • Custom commisions

            • For Something Unique
              Custom Robotic Commissions
              RoboThespian and SociBot are very versatile communicators. But if you need something that is completely unique. We can offer a custom robotic commission option. The team at Engineered Arts covers all stages of robot development. With an extremely rapid design cycle, we can take a component all the way from early CAD to machining, implementation and testing within a day. We conduct mechanical and electrical development in parallel, ensuring tight integration of all mechatronic elements and resulting in robust hardware ready for everyday use.

              Engineered Arts specialise in advanced mechanical design, force control applications, pneumatic actuation and hybrid servo integration. Constantly attentive to new technological innovation, our engineers stay at the vanguard of mechanical design and sensor technology and can bring years of experience to bear in creating economical, cost-effective, bespoke solutions to match your needs.

              Where it all started
              Engineered Arts started life in 2004, solely creating custom robotic installations. Engineered Arts originally employed the talents of local artists and engineers to produce a number of bespoke mixed media installations for UK science centres and museums. These included major commissions for the Eden Project, Glasgow Science Centre, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and Centrum Kopernik in Warsaw.

              Advanced Robotic Ecosystem
              Since developing multiple iterations of RoboThespian and SociBot, we developed an advanced software/hardware eco system, that allows for extremely effective installations, available at a fraction of the normal development time and cost.

              When only the Best will do
              We are proud to offer most services in house, to ensure the highest quality available. However, we occasionally collaborate with select industry leaders in their respective fields to achieve the highest realism possible. Collaborators include prosthetics and animatronic specialist Millenium FX. We have worked with them on projects for TV, human like figures and larger than life film characters for public display.
                • Fred - Promotional Robot

                • Everything in this world is magic, except to the magician
                  We were asked by a London based PR agency to create a Mesmer robot to help promote the launch of popular TV series. The robot “Fred”, would be let loose on the unsuspecting public inside a specially rigged English pub. Fred needed to not only look human, it needed to behave in a human way. A perfect opportunity for our Mesmer system.
                    • The Brief in Brief

                    • The promotional robot had some very specific hoops to jump through. First of all, he had to physically match a real person (in step willing model Tedroy). Not only this, he had to be able to communicate and interact with the public in a human way, to shock and fascinate people. Even more, it needed to be operated by the chap the robot was emulating. Tedroy is an actor and voice-over artist and has no prior experience or expertise in roboteering. The software had to be intuitive, so he could focus on what he does best – being Tedroy. Oh, and we had just over 8 weeks, to scan our model, design, manufacture a unique shape, skin, assemble, test, integrate software, animate, skin and add facial hair one by one. Easy right?
                    • Speed, Speed, Speed

                    • With such a short turn around time on this project, we had to scan our subject straight away. So 2 days after accepting the project, we went to Pinewood studios to scan Tedroy, using 2 very high-resolution photogrammetry rigs. One for Ted’s body, and one for his face/head. For the head alone, we used 60 DSLR cameras, and for the body… a staggering 180! Below is a view of the head scan captured by 3D systems.
                    • Beautiful on the Inside and Out

                    • Biomimetic Neck Tedroy’s robotic double features a complex and elegant recreation of the human neck. A standard Mesmer design, featuring vertebrae, squidgy discs, and state of the art motor drives, it’s what provided Ted with smooth human-like motion. Being a standard Mesmer design, it interfaces with any Mesmer robotic head, via a quick-release system. This means it’s very easy to unzip the skin, unclip the head and replace with a new one. Designed for ease of use, for any level technical competence.

                      Biomimetic Neck
                      Tedroy’s robotic double features a complex and elegant recreation of the human neck. A standard Mesmer design, featuring vertebrae, squidgy discs, and state of the art motor drives, it’s what provided Ted with smooth human-like motion. Being a standard Mesmer design, it interfaces with any Mesmer robotic head, via a quick-release system. This means it’s very easy to unzip the skin, unclip the head and replace with a new one. Designed for ease of use, for any level technical competence.

                       
                    • Articulated Eyes and Eyelids

                    • Most of Tedroy’s facial articulation comes from eyeball and eyelid movement. They need to move like a human’s, and behave like it. So we included lots of micro movements, spells of eye contact. They needed to be realistic, so both eyes were powered by silent high torque, high-speed motors, to ensure he felt like a real person.
                    • 3D Printed Skull Unique to Tedroy

                    • To ensure he looked true to life on the outside, his head shape needed to be true to life on the inside. We designed skull parts based on the Tedroy scan results, then 3D printed them in-house to ensure a perfect fit. This provided a visually accurate exterior and a mechanically sound connection to the internal components too.
                    • Painstakingly Crafted Skin & Hair

                    • To make a truly lifelike exterior, not only does the skin need to be the right shape, colour, texture, flexibility, it also needs to have hair. We’re talking eyebrows, stubble, eyelashes, and of course the hair on top of his head. How many realistic wigs have you seen? And could you buy an exact wig to match your current hairdo? Probably not. So we punched every single strand into his face for ultra-realistic hair.
                    • Animated Using Virtual Robot

                    • Virtual Robot is the most intuitive and powerful robot performance software on the market. In a browser, simply drag the body parts around, add a keyframe, find the next point in time and repeat. It features automated lip sync to allow you to concentrate on the fun stuff. Because Virtual Robot is browser-based, with no install required, it is totally OS agnostic. The real beauty of the software means it is very easy for the end user to create engaging content, quickly and easily. Without the cost of sending an idea back to robot makers.
                    • The shoot?

                    • Fred was ready for his time in the sun. Packed away and en route with our team from Cornwall to London. The shoot was set in a London pub, and the robot was installed with a wired internet connection. Which was handy, as it meant the team at Engineered Arts HQ were able to send over new content to the robot, on the fly. Ted knew he was having a robot being built to resemble him, but up until this point, he had not been introduced to his digital doppelganger. To say he was pleased with the result is putting it mildly.

                      Tedroy got to the grips with the software on the shooting day, without any practice beforehand. One person from the shooting day said “that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!” High praise indeed.

                      We knew the shoot was a high-pressure situation, so we had remote engineers on standby in case there were any technical issues. However, the robot was just as reliable as any human on the set.
                    • “Be the Robot… Be the Robot…”

                    • Who knows how to be Ted better than Ted? Certainly not us. To make sure interaction was seamless as possible, we let Ted loose controlling the robot through our state of the art telepresence software “TinMan”. From a computer, Ted can see & hear what Fred does. Talk through the robot, control his motion and trigger preloaded content. At the same time as the robot performing automated behaviours, like maintaining eye contact with people, and small neck and facial movements to keep the robot looking ‘alive’. All done automatically, so Ted can focus on the fun stuff. Being Ted!
                  • Jing Boran & Wuba

                  • When is a Wax Figure not a Wax Figure?
                    When it’s the one that moves!


                    (And is made out of silicone). That’s right. In 2017/18 we were tasked to create Madame Tussauds‘ first intelligent wax figure. Not just one that moves, but one that senses people, and changes behaviour based on its surroundings. Enter Chinese Superstar Jing Boran, who plays Song in the blockbuster Monster Hunt & Monster Hunt 2. Along for the ride comes Song’s mischievous monster friend Wuba. The Madame Tussauds team worked their magic, taking all of their reference photos, measurements and body scanning. From there they produced a traditional Madame Tussauds clay sculpt of Jing’s bust. Once created, we then set about creating a fully operational robot that looks just like a Madame Tussauds waxwork, but that moves and interacts with people. For this, we used a groundbreaking package of technology, we call Mesmer.
                      • Solving the Problem of Unique Individual Human Morphology

                      • Strangely enough, we didn’t have any Jing Boran skulls in stock. We did, however, have the Madame Tussauds sculpt. But by itself, no good for designing parts that fit inside his unique shape. What we needed was an accurate virtual 3D model to allow our CAD engineers to place & design unique components that allow all design briefs to be met. This included smooth, expressive and resilient movement, alongside being an absolute doppelganger to Jing. To solve the problem, we took the sculpt and scanned it using a technique called photogrammetry. Which basically uses lots of photos of the same subject taken from different angles to create a 3D model. The accuracy of the scan was imperative, as it informed the rest of the design and manufacture process.
                      • Beautiful on the Inside and Out

                      • Biomimetic Neck
                        Jing’s “waxwork” features a complex and elegant recreation of the human neck. A standard Mesmer design, that we specifically customised to fit Jing’s dimensions. Featuring vertebrae, squidgy discs, and state of the art motor drives, it’s what provided Jing with smooth human-like motion. Being a standard mesmer design, it interfaces with any mesmer robotic head, via a quick-release system. It means it’s very easy to unzip the skin, unclip the head and replace with a new one. Designed for ease of use, for any level
                      • Articulated Eyes and Eyelids

                      • Subtlety was key in this installation. Meaning, as people approached Jing, he would look like a normal waxwork. Then all of a sudden, the eyes start following you around the room. Eyeball and eyelid movement’s needed to be realistic, so both were powered by silent high torque, high-speed motors, so ensure he felt like a real person.
                      • 3D Printed Skull Unique to Jing

                      • To ensure he looked true to life on the outside, his head shape needed to be true to life on the inside. We designed skull parts based on the scan results, then 3D printed them in-house to ensure a perfect fit. This provided a visually accurate exterior and a mechanically sound connection to the internal components too.
                      • Light Weight & Rugged Body Shell

                      • There were many areas of Jing that were covered in clothing. So we used our lightweight, rugged & modular body shell, to ensure his body shape, was maintained accurately and affordably. This shell is attached to a metal framework and base that allows for a stable and safe figure. Even in a public environment
                      • Silicon(e) Valley meets the Uncanny Valley

                      • The traditional way of creating Madame Tussauds’ doppelgangers is by using wax. We knew that it wouldn’t be possible to animate wax. So we decided that silicone was the best material for the job. Flexible, moldable, soft like skin & hard wearing. The silicone had to look perfect from the outside and had to interface with the internal components flawlessly. To make this happen we had to go through lots of moulding, scanning, remoulding and adaption stages. The internal core had to match the dimensions and shape of the 3D printed skull. The skin also had remain securely adhered to the skull whilst still being super quick to change and remove.

                        This was achieved by a combination of magnets in both the skin and skull along with an embedded zipper at the back. You can see the magnet locations on the core image on the right. A combination of automated and manual processes was used to create the core and outer moulds. Once a successful silicone skin was produced, it was sent to Madame Tussauds for their usual painting and adding hair. The level of detail went as far as individually adding hair one by one.
                      • Animated Using Virtual Robot

                      • Virtual Robot is the most intuitive and powerful robot performance software on the market. In a browser, simply drag the body parts around, add a keyframe, find the next point in time and repeat. Featuring automated lip sync to allow you to concentrate on the fun stuff. Because Virtual Robot is browser-based, with no install required, it is totally OS agnostic. The real beauty of the software means it is very easy for the end user to create engaging content, quickly and easily. Without the cost of sending an idea back to robot makers.
                      • What about Wuba?

                      • Wuba posed different challenges to Jing. First of all, he is totally fictional and has only ever existed in a CGI context. Where rules of the physics, mechanics and biology don’t really exist. He is also a much smaller package than Jing. Meaning we had to achieve similar levels of articulation within far smaller confines. Wuba features no neck movement, however, he does include eye and lids movement, ear wiggles along with jaw and smile control.

                        Wuba has eyes that are much larger than humans. And and a “non-standard” orange colour to them. Naturally, we did not have these particular eyes in stock. Because we make all of our eyes in-house, we were able to create movie accurate eyes that mechanically mesh with our custom designed eye mechanics.
                      • 3D Printing has the Answer

                      • As well the internal shells of Wuba, we also 3D printed the mould and core of Wuba, in-house. This meant were able to quickly and accurately design and manufacture Wuba, without having to outsource any of that process. This allowed for a much more rapid prototype, development stage, providing designers with an almost instant access to new parts. It also allowed production of parts that just aren’t possible to make with traditional subtractive manufacturing processes. All of this maximises what is technically possible whilst simultaneously reducing the final cost to the customer.
                      • Sensors and Smart Software

                      • Jing & Wuba use a combination of Lidar and 3d Stereoscopic camera sensors to perceive the world around them. From this, they are able to maintain eye contact with visitors. Trigger movements and routines depending on who and how many people are in front of them. Featuring software that estimates gender age and mood of people, Wuba & Jing’s behaviour can adapt depending on changes to those inputs. It’s these things that make them truly a work of Robotics, not just animatronics.
                    • Kong

                    • Kong – Giant Animatronic Head for Madame Tussauds

                      Larger than Life Robotics
                      Introducing Kong! 2 robotic lifesize King Kong heads on display at Madame Tussauds - London and New York. Built by Engineered Arts in collaboration with Madame Tussauds, Merlin Magic Making, Millenium FX; Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. The heads are accurate to `Kong: Skull Island´ released in 2017 by Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures. Kong is more than a simple animatronic, he is interactive: Using sensors and custom software, his eyes follow you around the room, he snarls, roars and blasts air from his nostrils at his unsuspecting public.
                        • Kong In Place

                        • Beautiful Inside and Out
                          Engineered Arts were responsible for the design and build of the mechanical elements of the two Kongs, along with the operating software that makes it all work. Once Legendary provided the virtual model of Kong, our team set about designing mechanical hardware that was both movie-accurate and robust enough to meet the high demands of daily operation in a public environment. Due to time and geographical constraints, the mechanical elements and outer skins were developed at the same time in completely different locations. An accurate design and build process was crucial to ensuring seamless integration with the outer shell and skin produced by Millennium FX. We actuated the Kong head with pneumatics. This allows, smooth, fast and most importantly safe movement. Features already established in our “off the shelf” model RoboThespian. This allowed for an efficient and cost-effective development and testing cycle.
                        • MONKEY BRAIN

                        • Kong features sensors and software that adjust his behaviour depending on various stimuli. Kong uses Lidar technology to accurately track people in his vicinity. Software interprets this information and tells him to look at the tracked people. All of this happens in real time and seamlessly. If conditions are just right, he might just blast a whole tank of compressed air from his nostrils in visitors faces whilst he vocalises his anger.
                        • Easy to use browser based 3D animation software included for free!

                        • Virtual Robot offers a powerful way of programming content for an animatronic with an intuitive, multi-layered graphical user interface. Designed by Engineered Arts, this web-enabled software runs on HTML5 with WebGL, requires no installation, and is cross-system compatible. The character can be posed using the mouse, simply by clicking and dragging eyes, mouth, nostrils, sounds, …etc. We animated the content for Kong, however, the software allows customers to add their own content wherever they are in the world. As soon as new content is created it can be transferred to one or all operated animatronics instantly.
                        • The Process

                        • Creating something as unique as Kong isn’t easy. This is what it took to make it happen
                          • Initial enquiry
                          • Client consultation, design brief & quote
                          • Design and refine Kong mechanics
                          • Build behaviour software node
                          • Manufacture & source components
                          • Build first Kong
                          • Add software, animate content and test
                          • Amend design & software based on test results
                          • Build second Kong using already pre-determined methodologies and hardware
                          • Second build and test is much quicker
                          • Ship to Millenium FX for skinning
                          • Test complete exhibit once skinned
                          • Dissasemble
                          • Ship components to New York and London
                          • Installation and testing in New York, then London.
                          • Upload changes in behaviour based on client feedback