Secret Of Star Wars ‘Rolling’ BB-8 Droid Is Revealed - And It’s Not CGI

In the first Star Wars film, R2-D2 was piloted by dwarf actor Kenny Baker - but new droid BB-8 mystified viewers.

Many assumed the droid was created using CGI - but were baffled when a working version showed up on the red carpet.

Now the engineers behind it - Josh Lee and Matt Denton - have shown off the clever pendulum structure which allows the robot to work.

The head is attached magnetically - allowing the robot to work the red carpet - although on set, the robot is often a puppet version, moved on a stick.

The robot only came into existence due to Harrison Ford’s on-set accident, its creator revealed.

Josh Lee said, ‘Due to some unfortunate circumstances with Harrison Ford and his ankle, we were all given a month off.

‘Unfortunately I can’t stop thinking about it and my wife was frustrated that I couldn’t’ stop thinking about as while we were on holiday I was still sketching out how it might work.

'Over that month I figured out it was possible. In the weekends and evenings we started building a prototype of how it could be done for real.

'There are a few ways of doing this. A pendulum robot is what we chose.’