Disney's BDX droids — the Star Wars-inspired bipeds that roam Galaxy's Edge — have appeared in parks in Florida, Paris and Tokyo and on cruise ships since fall 2023, and feature in 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' (in theaters May 22, 2026). They are not new; what is new is the tooling behind them.
In March 2025 Disney Research, NVIDIA and Google DeepMind announced Newton, an open-source, GPU-accelerated physics engine for training robots in simulation. Disney Imagineering says it compresses character-robot development from years to weeks — the difference between a one-off showpiece and a repeatable production line of expressive robots.
Entertainment is where most people first meet a humanoid, and Disney is quietly writing the playbook for character robotics — expressive, safe around crowds and reproducible. The moat is less any single droid than the simulation pipeline that lets a studio manufacture personality at scale.
Key Facts
- BDX droids in Disney parks since fall 2023 (US, Paris, Tokyo, cruises)
- Newton physics engine: Disney Research + NVIDIA + Google DeepMind (Mar 2025)
- Imagineering: development compressed from years to weeks
- BDX featured in 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' (May 22, 2026)
- Open-source, GPU-accelerated simulation
Frequently Asked
What are Disney's BDX droids?
Free-roaming, Star Wars-inspired bipedal character robots that have appeared at Disney parks in Florida, Paris and Tokyo and on cruise ships since fall 2023.
What is Newton?
An open-source, GPU-accelerated physics engine for training robots in simulation, announced in March 2025 by Disney Research, NVIDIA and Google DeepMind, which Disney says cuts character-robot development from years to weeks.
Why does this matter for entertainment robotics?
The simulation pipeline — not any single droid — is what lets Disney produce expressive, crowd-safe character robots repeatably, defining a playbook for the category.