Amusement rides can, and often do, include one or more carriages that are used to transport patrons through an enclosed (i.e., indoor) space, through an outdoor space, or through a combination of indoor and outdoor spaces. Tracks, embedded in or bolted to the surface traversed by the carriage, have been used to guide carriages through rides both indoors and outdoors.
While not typically thought of this way, an amusement ride is designed to tell a story in addition to entertain or thrill. The story is presented to the patron in the form of a show consisting of a plurality of individual scenes. The show might immerse the patron in an adventure or provide the patron with information. The show's storyline is typically advanced by moving the patron in a car past a series of fixed scenes (e.g., locations within the ride). At each location, the patron may be presented with a three-dimensional set depicting a scene in the story. The set might include moving and non-moving components; however, the set itself is typically fixed at one location. In a typical amusement ride, because the patrons are moving through the ride, past each set, the sets are not changed after each patron views the set. Instead, if some action is performed in a given first set, the ride is timed such that a given patron, in a given car, is within view of the first set from the start of its action to the conclusion of its action. At the conclusion of the action, the patron is transported to the next set. A new patron is simultaneously transported to within view of the first set and the process is repeated again and again for each subsequent patron.
The movement of patrons past fixed sets is the expected norm of today's typical amusement rides. In such conventional rides, patrons are moved between rooms in cars. Each room can include one or more fixed location sets (or scenes). Additionally or alternatively, patrons are moved from one set to the next within a common room. In a common room situation, patrons are typically moved toward one set after another. Also, in a common room situation, a patron in one car can see, if only briefly, other patrons in other cars moving from set to set.
These methods of advancing a storyline are limiting in that each set is fixed to a certain location (even though the set itself might include moving features). Synchronization between cars and sets is not present or is limited to a macro level. For example, tracked system (and some trackless systems) may not run the sets continuously, but rather are triggered by the proximity of the cars to “event synchronize” the set. That is the set operates once the car arrives at some point, but this is not complete synchronization of the car and set. However, a time-based synchronization between a car's exact position/motion and a specific motion of a set associated with the car's exact position/motion is non-existent. Moreover, these methods are dated and not exciting because patrons have come to expect to be seated in cars and driven from room to room or set to set as part of a typical amusement ride.
U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2010/0053029, published Mar. 4, 2010 (the '029 publication), describes an amusement ride where patrons are not passed from room to room, rather, a room is divided into zones by use of mobile/moving platforms equipped with display devices. The display devices are configured to present video images to patrons in other mobile/moving platforms. The display devices could be televisions, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma displays, or a system consisting of a video projector and projection screen. The '029 publication's display devices in general, and their screens in particular, are means of presenting two-dimensional images to a patron for the patron's entertainment. Two-dimensional images, however, deprive patrons of a sense of reality or realistic comic fiction that is desired by patrons.
Similarly, the '029 publication's display devices are utilitarian machines; they occupy space but do not add to the excitement of a show; they are not a “part of the show” in that they do not, alone, entertain a patron. The entertainment is provided by the two dimensional image presented on the screen of the display device.
Because the display devices are three-dimensional objects that are not a part of the show, the physical structures that form the display devices (e.g., the housing surrounding the device and the bezel around the edges of the screens of televisions, liquid crystal displays, plasma displays, and projection screens) must be disguised. Even so, patrons realize that the entertainment being provided to them is simply a two-dimensional image presented on a screen. This is true regardless of whether the screen is flat or includes simple or complex contours. This realization diminishes the enjoyment of the show.
Furthermore, the screens of the display devices destroy the illusion of infinity or depth of view, because the two dimensional image projected on the screen must necessarily have a border that is visible to the patron. Even if the borders (or bezels) of the panels forming the screens are reduced to millimeter widths, two dimensional projected images necessarily end at the edges of their screens.
Further, the size of many display devices, including those described in the '029 publication, is a disadvantage. The size limits the sightlines of patrons. The '029 publication, however, exploits this disadvantage by using groups of display devices on adjacent propulsion platforms to create temporary movable or moving walls. The walls define zones within the ride.
According to the '029 publication, a first group of patrons in a first zone can watch a first two-dimensional projection, while a second group of patrons in a second zone (blocked from view of other groups of patrons by a wall of at least one of the display devices) watches a second two-dimensional projection. As the two-dimensional projections in each zone end, the propulsion platforms of the various groups of display devices move to positions that allow the first group of patrons to pass into the second zone and the second group of patrons to pass into a third zone. The propulsion platforms of the various groups of display devices then return to their previous positions to block the sightline of one group from another.
Although the '029 publication's method produces moving and/or movable configurations of walls, it robs patrons of a sense of realism that can only be provided by the physical presence of a three-dimensional object modeled to represent a piece of the real (or fantasy) world. For example, a two-dimensional image of an elephant lunging toward a patron is hardly as entertaining as a three-dimensional animated model of an elephant lunging toward the patron from a fixed set in a conventional ride. Entertainment presented in three dimensions (by objects that occupy three dimensions of space) is desirable.
By contrast, in the example given above, the three-dimensional animated elephant that lunges from a fixed set seems real. It is physically present; it displaces space in the vicinity of the patron and physically reaches out to the patron.
Amusement parks include multiple amusement rides, as well as stores, restaurants, and entertainment venues located within the park. The rides, stores, etc. are typically placed adjacent to streets or paths along which patrons stroll through the amusement park. Parades are often conducted on these streets or paths during park operational hours. The parades typically include a series of live action performers walking along the parade route and a series of parade floats supporting live action performers and/or animated figures. The parade floats can be manually pulled and/or self-propelled, but are typically steered by a human operator. When the park has no patrons, maintenance vehicles can be pulled, towed, or driven on the same streets or paths.
The use of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in amusement parks is growing in popularity. It is believed that AGVs first found utility in warehouses, where they continue to be used to transport goods between locations of the warehouse. AGVs also find utility in large office buildings, where they might be used to deliver mail or packages. In each of these exemplary AGV environments, collision avoidance is typically provided in one or more of the following ways.
According to a first method, the environment, say a warehouse is divided into multiple non-overlapping zones. An AGV is forbidden to enter a given zone if another AGV is already present in that zone. When the AGV approaches or enters a forbidden zone, an event alerts the AGV control systems and any master monitoring systems of the event and takes corrective action. Synchronization of AGV actions are typically event driven.
In a second method, the AGV surrounds itself with a virtual detection field, which may change dynamically as the AGV's speed and direction change. The virtual detection field could be implemented using, for example, one or more of radio waves (radar), light waves (lidar), optics (object detection systems), or sound waves (sonar). As an AGV approaches an obstacle, such as a wall or shelving unit, the on-board detection field detects the presence of the obstacle and may cause the AGV to, for example, stop until the field is clear. Again, this is an event which drives the AGV to take corrective action.
In warehouses, and even office buildings, AGVs can announce their presence using both audible and visual safety systems, such as a beeping horn and a blinking light. In amusement parks, however, the use of beeping horns and blinking lights on an AGV would ruin any illusion of fantasy. Furthermore, amusement parks are filled with distractions by design. The distractions appeal to all ages of patrons. Children, and even adults, are apt to carelessly walk into objects or people. In many venues, outdoor parade routes are carefully secured prior to allowing the parade vehicles to enter the route. Still, accidents happen and a distracted or disabled person, unaware of any danger, might walk into the path of a vehicle.
If a human is physically steering and controlling the speed of a vehicle, the human is hopefully able to avoid causing the patron injury. However, AGVs used in an amusement park or an amusement park ride will typically be programmed to make an “emergency stop” in the event that an object is suddenly detected in the path of the AGV, or if a fault is detected in the AGV. In an emergency stop condition, propulsion stops and brakes are forcefully applied to bring the AGV to a stop as soon as possible. The forceful application of the brakes, however, may cause the AGV to skid. Such emergency stops cause the AGV to lose synchronization with its environment and require that the amusement ride or parade be reset and either restart from the beginning or from some fixed start point. That is, such emergency stops interrupt the flow of the show, which often cannot restarted seamlessly, and if it can be restarted, some portion of the show will likely be missed.
What is needed is a system and method that can solve one or more of the problems associated with the prior art as explained above.