Gamers choose settings on interactive ride using Kuka KR 500 Robot

By Control Engineering Staff November 20, 2006

Kuka Robotics Corp. , a global manufacturer of industrial robots, signed a system partner agreement with Primal Rides of Ontario, Canada, to provide a new fully interactive amusement ride. Primal will build a robotic gaming ride around Kuka’s KR 500 robot. The new ride will be fully interactive, designed to match customer requirements in theme, intensity, and realism. It will make it possible to cost-effectively change themes to adjust to rider appeal. Primal Rides showed a scaled-down concept version of the ride on their booth (#4004) at the IAAPA Expo in Atlanta, GA, Nov. 15-18, 2006.

“This is the first fully interactive robotic gaming ride of its kind,” said Kevin Kozuszek, director of marketing for Kuka Robotics. “Primal Rides’ attractions are extremely creative and with our robot used as the ride’s building block their customers are limited only by their imagination.”

Alan Brown, president for Primal Rides, credited the advancement of exciting robotic rides to “Kuka’s cutting-edge robotic expertise coupled with our knowledge of intricate themed amusement attractions.”

Primal Rides specializes in fully-themed environments, which it creates and builds based on close consultation with its clients. The company specializes in system integration with in-house theme and scenic departments, and has foam and metal fabricating capabilities. The company’s expertise includes theme park rides, animatronics, props, and scenery.

The KR 500 robot is designed especially for high-speed tasks with heavy payloads. The robot is a six-axis robot with a 3,326 mm reach and capable of handling up to a 500 kg payload. The robot can throw a 2 g force, and the ride featuring the robot can be equipped with a variety of laser guns, targets, themes, and effects depending on the customer’s theme ideas. Amusement parks can quickly and cost-effectively change the ride’s theme and intensity by changing peripheral effects and robot programming without re-investing in new hardware. Such applications would need to include an easy-to-use human machine interface linking to a diversity of mix-and-match pre-programmed parameters governing the robot’s movements.

— C.G. Masi , Control Engineering senior editor