Disney is known for its innovation, inventing new technologies to enable it to build what its Imagineers dream up.

When designing the ride vehicles for its DINOSAUR (originally known as “Countdown to Extinction”) attraction in Disney World and Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye attraction in Disneyland, they brought realistic simulators to the next generation.

The U.S. patent that was granted for the Dynamic Ride Vehicle(#5,623,878), gives details of the technology used in those rides and other potential uses that the technology could be used for.

The basic premise of the invention was to combine the technology that was previously used in multi-axes simulators like Disney World’s Body Wars and Star Tours attractions and makes them smaller and mobile so that the simulator vehicle can travel along a path and greatly increase the potential realism.

Once mobile they removed the barrier of needing to project images on a movie screen. Now the simulator can travel through the lifelike environments and encounter limitless situations. Each simulator vehicle can be programmed to react differently, creating a greater variety of ride experiences for the guest, thereby encouraging repeat visits.

Disney also presented in the patent that the ride vehicle could take on many different forms, including that of an animal.

Here in figure 1, you see the example of an Elephant ride vehicle.






















In Figure 2, you can see how the passenger area actuates separately from the base, allowing the riders to “feel” that they are actually riding an elephant. I thought it was very interesting that Disney thought it was important to specifically call out that this technology could be placed in the form of an animal.




































Figures 7 & 9 Demonstrate the invention using a ride vehicle that looks more like a SUV can move and down and side to side. The actuators work in concert with computers to raise and lower when signaled to do so. This can be accomplished through timing, reading sensors in the path or location, or reacting to rider input.




In all up to 6 axes of movement can be incorporated into the simulator. 6 axes are represented in the following diagram showing movement: in the normal 3 dimensions (forward-back, left-right, & up-down) and rotating around each of those directions as shown. Bottom line is that they can have full range of motion for their simulator.



Figures 23 & 26 show how the ride vehicle can simulate high speed turns and climbing up and descending down hills by having the upper part of the vehicle move while the base remains in contact with the path. This allows for more thrills at slower, and safer speeds.





















Lastly Figure 28 shows how the vehicle can react to an imaginary log in the path, using all of the actuators in sequence to simulate that motion.





















The engineer in me comes out when I look at the details for this patent that Disney received. The possibilities for ride applications are limitless. It is also a platform that is easily re-programmed, allowing for less expensive redesigns and ride modifications. Hopefully we will see Disney's next use of this technology again at Disney World soon.

If you would like to read the full text of Disney’s patent # 5,623,878 just follow this link: http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=CzwTAAAAEBAJ