Inside the Simworx AGV Dark Ride with the ECC

I was lucky enough to be invited down to Simworx's Head Office in Dudley along with other members of the European Coaster Club on Sunday 4th September for an exclusive preview of the company's new AGV (Automated Guidance Vehicle) Dark Ride ahead of its official "unveiling" at IAAPA Expo Europe later this month.

Simworx's West Midlands test facility

Simworx have designed the AGV to take dark ride technology to the next level - not only allowing vehicles to travel through an environment without the need to follow a track, but also combining a motion base to rock passengers up and down and spin them around a full 360°. State of the art robotics mean the vehicles are pretty speedy too, capable of accelerating at up to 0.3G and zooming around racing through their pre-defined space.

The prototype Simworx AGV Dark Ride

The system is battery powered, taking advantage of the latest advances in electric vehicle charging technologies and meaning the AGV can keep running throughout the theme park day by topping itself up every time it is sitting in a load/unload station waiting for passengers to get on and off.

We weren't there just to look at the AGV though: Simworx had invited us to be the first people to ride an AGV outside of Simworx employees. Although we sped around their warehouse testing facility rather than through a fully immersive dark ride environment, we were still able to get a sense of what the Automated Guidance Vehicle can do, and it is hugely impressive.

The AGV's door open and waiting for riders to board

The eight seater vehicle arranges riders in two rows of four, with the back row higher than the front in a stadium style seating configuration which ensures all riders have an unobstructed view of the action. The seats are made of hard plastic, yet are reasonably comfortable. There's a loose-fitting lap bar which covers the entire row rather than each seat having an individual restraint.

Two rows of seats

After the side door is lowered the vehicle slides slowly sideways away from the load platform, which is probably a metre or so above floor level (allowing room for the motion base and various electronics and systems underneath the main body of the car itself).

Setting off

The "demo mode" we experienced really put the AGV through its paces: we accelerated forwards with the motion base rocking us, which all felt smooth yet speedy inside the car. Deceleration was equally quick and smooth, with the AGV brought to a halt near the front of the test area. I can imagine this being used to great effect within a ride, racing forwards then braking sharply to avoid hitting some stationary object at the last possible moment.

View from the rear seats onboard

Next up was for me one of the AGV's greatest tricks: while remaining in one spot we were spun fully around both anti-clockwise and clockwise, with enough power to have us all leaning sideways into our seats and feeling some nice energetic G-forces.

Mid-spin

The finale of the demo had us accelerating straight backwards, zooming forwards, then backwards again weaving left and right as we went. It was amazing agility, and there seems to be so much potential for some incredible dark ride effects.

Overall, the Simworx AGV system was very very cool. It will form the centrepiece of the Simworx stand at the IAAPA trade show in London later in September, and we've just got to hope that a few theme parks see the ride, do a deal and we see some real world installations of AGV dark rides around the world in the next few years. I have a feeling that, with the addition of some decent theming and a good storyline, any park investing in the technology could have a real winner on their hands.

Thanks so much to Simworx for hosting us, and also to the European Coaster Club for organising the trip and affording us such a unique opportunity to be the first in the world to try out Simworx's new ride.