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In a 2023 profile, Disney Imagineering research scientist Morgan Pope described a different goal for entertainment robotics: not simply making machines move, but using their movement to make people feel. His examples range from Spider-Man’s aerial stunt robot to a rollerblading character whose awkward recovery from a fall was designed to invite empathy.
How robot movement can make an audience feel
For Pope, the emotional effect is part of the engineering problem. “We have a very different mission compared to conventional roboticists,” he told IEEE Spectrum in a profile published 21 November 2023. “We’re trying to use electromagnetism to create emotions.”
The phrase points to the physical means behind the work: motors and other electromagnetic systems make a robot move. But a technically successful motion is not automatically an expressive one. As Pope put it, “It’s not what it does, it’s how it does it. It has to do it in a way that makes you feel like this is a real character, a real, live being.” The movement must communicate character, not just complete a task.
That distinction helps explain why two very different robots appear in the profile. One delivers a dramatic aerial stunt; another moves in a way that can seem vulnerable. Their effects depend on what the audience sees in the motion.
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Stuntronic turns an aerial stunt into a character illusion
Pope helped build Stuntronic, a robotic Spider-Man stunt double used in a performance at Disneyland’s Avengers Campus. The IEEE Spectrum profile describes the Spider-Man stunt as a backflip 20 meters into the air. That measurement describes the stunt in the profile, not a general performance specification for the robot.
The act is not simply a robot performing alone. A human performer and the machine share the sequence, with the handoff designed to preserve the impression that one superhuman character is moving through the scene. A Los Angeles Times report published 29 June 2021 describes the transition between actor and robot; the robot’s landing is caught in a net out of guests’ sight.
Here, the primary audience effect is spectacle: a physically daring move that appears to belong to the same character visitors have been watching. The hidden landing and carefully managed transition matter because they support the illusion as much as the airborne motion does.
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A rollerblading robot finds empathy in an awkward fall
The profile also describes a rollerblading character prototype shown at South by Southwest in Austin. Instead of relying on acrobatic perfection, it used awkward movement and a recovery after falling to suggest effort and vulnerability.
That struggle gives viewers a familiar point of connection. “You relate to the robot struggling, because we’ve all been flat on our backs and had to get up,” Pope said. The scene works by making a mechanical action legible as a human-like predicament: the character has fallen, and now it is trying to recover.
The contrast with Stuntronic is useful. The Spider-Man robot supports high-velocity spectacle and the illusion of a single superhuman performance; the skating prototype uses imperfect motion to encourage relatability. In both cases, the question is not only whether the robot can move, but what the movement asks an audience to feel.
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Why theme-park robots face demanding conditions
A robot designed for a theme park has to do more than create a compelling moment. Pope’s profile emphasizes predictable operation, repeated-show reliability and elevated safety demands because these machines may operate near guests. A fall that reads as charming in a prototype must still be controlled; a stunt must fit into a dependable performance sequence.
Stuntronic’s use alongside a human performer and its out-of-sight net landing illustrate how the effect depends on the whole performance environment, not just the robot’s mechanics. Reliability, safety and staging all shape what the audience ultimately sees.
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Pope’s route into entertainment robotics
The 2023 profile describes Pope as a Disney Imagineering research scientist working on robots for theme-park entertainment. It says he studied engineering at Harvard, continued with graduate study in mechanical engineering at Stanford, and focused his doctoral research on robot mobility, including SCAMP. These are details reported in that profile, not confirmation of his employment or projects in 2026.
For students interested in similar work, Pope’s advice was to explore across disciplines and learn by building. “Try to build things that make you happy,” he said. “Chase the things that bring you joy. Chase the things that are delightful.” That approach fits a field where mechanics, control, performance and audience response meet: making things can reveal which part of the work holds your attention.
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