I Am Dr. Groot

By Kim Bellard, August 26, 2021

All I can think about is robots. Most of the recent publicity about robots has come from Elon Musk’s announcement of the Tesla Bot, or the new video of Boston Dynamic’s Atlas doing more amazing acrobatics, but I was more intrigued by Brooks Barnes’s New York Times article Are You Ready for Sentient Disney Robots?

One of the things that Disney has long included in its parks’ experience were robots. It has had robots in its parks since the early 1960’s, when it introduced “audio-animatronics,”. Disney has continued to iterate its robots, but, as Mr. Barnes points out, in a world of video games, CGI, VR/AR, and, for heaven’s sake, Atlas robots doing flips, its lineup was growing dated.

Enter Project Kiwi.

In April, Scott LaValley, the lead engineer on the project, told TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino: “Project KIWI started about three years ago to figure out how we can bring our smaller characters to life at their actual scale in authentic ways.” The prototype is Marvel’s character Groot, featured in comic books and the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.

By 2021, they had a functioning prototype. Mr. Barnes reported that his interactions with the would-be Groot were quite remarkable. It spoke to him, reacted to his initial non-response, and, eventually, “I wanted to hug him. And take him home.”

Groot is only the beginning. Mr. Barnes said: He is a prototype for a small-scale, free-roaming robotic actor that can take on the role of any similarly sized Disney character. In other words, Disney does not want a one-off. It wants a technology platform for a new class of animatronics.

If, as Elon Musk believes, “the economy is, at the foundation, labor,” then there may be no sector in which this is more true than in healthcare (especially long term care). Tech companies may be failing in healthcare because they think adding a tech layer will “fix” things, but our current system isn’t going anywhere until we address labor — its costs, its supply limitations, its productivity output. The pandemic almost broke our healthcare workers last year, and the recent surge is overwhelming them again.

Healthcare could use more robots.

Yes, there are robots in healthcare. People often point out to robotic surgery, which has not managed to reduce costs, improve quality, or remove the human component. There are also delivery robots (often used in hospitals), “patient simulators,” even companions, but, honestly, we need more robots like Hanson Robotics’ Grace, specifically aimed for healthcare. “I can visit with people and brighten their day with social stimulation … but can also do talk therapy, take bio readings and help healthcare providers,” Grace “told” Reuters.

It’s not there yet; it would need considerable evolution to play a significant role in our healthcare system, but, with the right investments, it will get there. And, yes, eventually there will be robot doctors, powered by AI.

Mr. Panzarino brings up the field of human-robot interaction (HRI), and asserts that, of all the companies, industries, and academic centers working on it, “the most incredibly interesting work in this space is being done in Imagineering R&D.” Again, as the Disney Institute preaches, focusing “on the details that other organizations may often undermanage — or ignore.”

I wish healthcare was leading HRI.

Healthcare needs to change its customer experience from passive to interactive. If Disney recognizes the need to stay “fresh and relevant,” that is all-the-moreso in healthcare. Healthcare thinks it is in the care business, but it must also recognize it is in the experience business — and that its experience currently is pretty woeful (often literally). It’s undermanaging and often ignoring the details that make up that experience. And when does technology in healthcare ever “disappear”?

Robots alone aren’t going to change all that in healthcare, but the level of attention — to detail, to relevancy, to customer experience — that Disney brings to its robotics efforts could go a long way.

 This post is an abridged version of the original posting in Medium. Please follow Kim on Medium and on Twitter (@kimbbellard)