Disney’s new animated film Big Hero 6 follows the heroic exploits of Hiro, an orphaned prodigy, and his inflatable robot friend Baymax. The lovable Baymax provides much of the film’s humor and makes robots, so often portrayed as cold metallic androids, remarkably human.

Even though most of the science in the film is farfetched and whimsical, the film’s co-director, Don Hall, said he was inspired to create Baymax as a balloon-like robot after visiting Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded initiative.

The real-life robot that inspired Baymax was actually a robotic arm covered in fabricated skin and filled with air. These new “soft robots” are part of DARPA’s Maximum Mobility Manipulation (M3) program that aims to make robots better at moving through and manipulating their environments.

According to Gill Pratt, DARPA program manager, “inflatable robots, like the arm developed at Carnegie Mellon, offer unique benefits such as high strength to weight, small size when uninflated, low fabrication cost, and safety when working around human beings.”

DARPA’s new robots are no match for Baymax, a futuristic do-it-all healthcare professional who can scan bodies for ailments, diagnose issues and provide treatment. But they are making headway that could lead us to a future where robots are less intimidating and more helpful (unless we’re talking about M3’s horrifying robotic cheetah). You can view the robotic arm that influenced Baymax below.