Dynamic Coaster  Vehicle Project

For this project I began with a question. ​Why do dark rides and roller coasters provide such different ride experiences? Can components of each be combined to create a more unique and thrilling ride experience? Well, there's only one way to find out... 

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I began by thinking about what makes dark ride systems such thrilling and immersive experiences. Many of these rides are motion simulator vehicles with large projection screens displaying a video to make riders feel they are in a claustrophobic or eerie location. Some use multiple screens and a tracked (or trackless) ride system to guide vehicles around a ride layout with multiple large projection screens and a few strategically placed props (Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, Transformers: The Ride 3D, Remy's Ratatouille Adventure) to augment the projected setting. Others use a similar approach with more physical 3D scenes and animatronics in place of oversized video screens (Rise of the Resistance, Dinosaur, Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye). Others still use a 3 or 6-DOF (degree of freedom) motion base originally designed for flight simulators to move a large cabin without traveling around a ride track (Star Tours, Smuggler's Run, Wild Arctic, Back to the Future: The Ride). Despite their differences all types of dark rides have a 3 or 6-DOF motion base to articulate a passenger cabin to simulate dynamic vehicle motions matching the video and audio elements during the ride. To make a more thrilling and more dynamic ride vehicle, I believe a 3-DOF motion platform could be added to a roller coaster train to allow for articulation of the vehicle during show scenes or specific locations along the ride track. 

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Currently no roller coaster vehicles have more than one degree of freedom between the vehicle chassis and the passenger cabin area. X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain uses a rack and pinion to rotate riders up to 720 degrees around the rider pitch axis. Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts uses a ring and pinion gear system to allow full 360 degree rotation about the vehicle's yaw axis. Other roller coaster vehicles provide uncontrolled spinning around the same two axes (Cobra's Curse, various S&S Free Spin rides). However no 2, 3, or 6-DOF coasters exist. So I wondered if it was possible to design a 3 DOF roller coaster to provide a previously unimaginable ride experience. 

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So why did I choose to create a 3-DOF ride mechanism? Why not 2 or 6-DOF? My goal is to create something which provides enough DOF's to let the rider feel as if they are on a vehicle running independent of the ride track. Through my previous experiences with ride systems I found that 3-DOF (heave, pitch, and roll) simulators provide enough freedom in movement to simulate a vehicle accelerating, breaking, turning, driving over banked roads, and maneuvering over rough terrain (for further details on an existing 3-DOF simulator ride see Disney's Dynamic Ride Vehicle patent). A 6-DOF motion base would provide additional freedom which would allow for much more precise movement of the passenger cabin, however the motion base will sit on a roller coaster vehicle frame and is supported by the coaster's bogies and wheels. As such weight must be reduced as much as possible to allow for the best performance of the vehicle, lower stresses in the coach's structural frame, reduced maintenance requirements, and less frequent PM procedures. 

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Now, what method of actuation will provide a significant enough force on the passenger cabin to provide a thrilling ride while adding the least amount of weight to the coaster train vehicle? The most feasible options for this 3-DOF base are: electric actuators with a battery or supercapacitor, hydraulic actuators with a high pressure accumulator, pneumatic actuators with a high pressure tank, and electric actuators with a bus bar.

 

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