Legged high-dexterity self-balancing capable robot actor

A method of generating control animations, motion parameters, or scripts for a self-balancing, legged robot, comprising:

• animating a performance for a legged robot with a predefined hardware configuration;
• verifying whether the animated performance complies with physical constraints, wherein when the animated performance is noncompliant with the physical constraints the animating is repeated;
• and
• running a simulation of the animated performance based on the predefined hardware configuration to determine whether the legged robot balances, wherein the animating is repeated when the legged robot loses balance during the running of the simulation.

A robot for bringing characters to life in the physical world, comprising:

• a pair of movable legs;
• memory storing authored animation content generated to correspond with a screen-based character;
• sensors perceiving inputs from a physical environment in which the robot is positioned;
• and
• a controller including a behavior engine processing the authored animation content along with the inputs from the sensors to generate motion commands to control motion of the pair of movable legs,
• wherein the controller performs motion synthesis prior to generating the motion commands,
• wherein the behavior engine selects and places in sequential order a set of movements in the authored animation content based on the inputs from the sensors, and
• wherein a set of actuators in the pair of legs operate in response to the motion commands.