Olaf the robot: Disney uses simulations to bring Frozen character to parks
Mar 16th 2026
Disney’s new Olaf robot was trained in large-scale physics simulations using reinforcement learning and will appear in live park performances this year, but it is not yet fully autonomous.
- Olaf is a 35-inch, 33-pound robot built by Disney Imagineering and driven by 25 actuators and three onboard computers.
- Disney trained Olaf with reinforcement learning by simulating 100,000 virtual Olafs on an Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU over two days.
- The robot is primarily teleoperated from a Steam Deck and plays prerecorded voice lines that sound like Josh Gad.
- Olaf can blink autonomously but cannot see or hold natural conversations without an operator controlling gaze and dialogue selection.
- Disney will debut Olaf at Disneyland Paris on March 26 and at Hong Kong Disneyland this summer as part of timed performances.
- Disney released simulation tools like Kamino and helped open-source the Newton Physics Engine to speed robot development and encourage industry use