Key Takeaways:

Disney Research will build the physical robot, NVIDIA will provide the simulation platform and AI hardware to train distinct movements of robots.
The collaboration will use Reinforcement Learning to teach Olaf aspects of moving, balancing, and interacting inside the virtual world before deploying his brain to the robot.
The Olaf robot is designed to waddle, moonwalk, and maintain his snowy balance, with AI processing for interaction.

The NVIDIA x Disney Robotics Collaboration
In the movies, Olaf has impressions, lovable movements, and it will be impossible to apply to standard robotics. To solve this, NVIDIA Robotics and Disney Research worked together. Disney’s expert imagineers will focus on the hardware design of the robot, and NVIDIA will provide the foundational technology stack for Olaf.
Olaf had to learn how to walk, waddle, balance, and interact inside the virtual world before he could take a step into the real world. Reinforcement Learning will allow the teams to train Olaf’s brain in a high-speed simulator.

The Advanced Tech Stack Behind Olaf’s Brain
This magic will require a specific technology stack. The simulation process will begin in NVIDIA Isaac Sim, this is a platform that is built on NVIDIA’s Omniverse. Isaac Sim will provide the ultra-realistic digital twin environment where Disney can teach Olaf new skills, from navigation to environmental reactions.
To simulate the physics of how a walking snowman can maintain balance or trip, they used Newton, an open-source physics engine that is developed by NVIDIA, Disney Research and Google DeepMind. Disney Research developed a simulation environment called Kamino, which runs on the Newton physics engine. Kamino will allow Disney to run lots of RL training for Olaf to master his movements, including his adorable waddle and his moonwalk. They used Kamino to train thousands of movement policies until they found the combination of stability and character expression.
The Jetson chip was deployed to the real robot when a stable and natural policy was chosen in the virtual world. Jetson is a specialized AI computer inside the Olaf robot. This chip will run the AI inference that allows Olaf to process his surroundings and make the movements he learned. 
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Olaf Walks into the Real World
Olaf will have the ability to walk, maintain his balance, turn his head, make eye contact, and move with something that is unnatural but cute. They are real-time that he learned to perform.
Disney announced that the Olaf robot will begin appearing in the World of Frozen expansion at Hong Kong Disneyland and at Disney Adventure World in Paris in 2026.