Simworx, one of the world’s leading suppliers of turnkey advanced media-based theme park attractions, is entering the next chapter of its story.
The West Midlands, UK-based company has blazed a trail in the industry since it was established in 1997, and today boasts a product portfolio that includes the Lost Temple at Movie Park, Germany, Marvel Avengers at Trans Studio Indonesia, Arthur 4D at Futuroscope and the London bus adventure at Merlin’s new Shrek’s Adventure midway.
Recent months have opened a new chapter for Simworx, thanks to fresh investment and the acquisition of ride system innovators RoboCoaster, whose technology is behind world-class rides such as the Forbidden Journey at Universal Studios Orlando.
The two companies – which are both driven by in-house technological innovation and the desire to bring fresh offers to the industry – have been working together for some time, but when Simworx won £4.5m ($7m, €6.5m) in investment from the Business Growth Fund, the acquisition was the next step.
The established Simworx line includes the 4D cinema, the Stargazer Motion Theatre, the Cobra Motion Theatre, the Immersive Tunnel and the Flying Theatre (in partnership with Mondial). With the acquisition of RoboCoaster, the company is launching its next generation of new technology rides, include trackless and robotic attractions.
Next Generation
Simworx and RoboCoaster plan to focus on the design and manufacture of a next generation of dark ride and robotic attractions, adding to their existing portfolios.
One of the new products in development under the RoboCoaster umbrella - the difference between Simworx and RoboCoaster is that the latter’s products enable a huge range of linear and/or vertical travel, specialising in passenger-carrying robotic technology and trackless dark rides – is the Advanced Guidance Vehicle (AGV). The AGV is a dark ride vehicle for eight to 12 passengers and a trackless, cable-free dark ride experience. The AGVs are powered by Ni-Cad batteries which charge overnight.
The beauty of the AGV is that you can create any type of ride path and multiple route options within the site space, with a vehicle that can drive forward, backwards and spin. It can also move sideways, “in a crabbing motion, like a hovercraft,” Monkton says.
The RCX G2 – the second model from RoboCoaster – is a number of track-based robots that each works in conjunction with a dome dolly, meaning the screen travels together with the passenger vehicle.
“The Immersive Tunnel, where typically you board the simulator and it goes forward on a straight track into the show area, was really our first venture into actually physically moving people,” Monkton says. “But the RoboCoaster RCX models and the AGV move people around in fully immersive environments.”
According to Andy Roberts, operations director at Simworx RoboCoaster, the affordability of the RoboCoaster technology is central to the business strategy.
“If you buy a Harry Potter ride you need a £250 million purse, and only the likes of Disney and Universal can afford that,” says Roberts. “The robots that are used on the Harry Potter ride are welding robots and they’re so precise that they could weld a piece of hair together. With the RCX we value-engineered the cost of producing the arm to make a similar ride that’s more affordable.”
“We’ve taken the concept of seats on a robot and produced a new machine. It’s a manipulator arm that has the same movements but is more akin to a theme park collaboration than a high precision robot. We can deliver that ride to the mainstream theme park industry at a price similar to a roller coaster.”
“One of the goals that Terry and I set in the early days was to position ourselves to produce a quality product for a fair price, and to always aim to have repeat customers. By the end of every Simworx project we ensure our customer has got what he really wants – and that’s how we measure quality. We also ensure the equipment that we use and the raw materials that we use are always the best quality,” Roberts says.
Simworx is located on one of the biggest trading estates in Europe, and many of the materials are manufactured by suppliers in the nearby area. Simworx has built up working partnerships with many of those, and there are fabricators who have invested in learning new skills and techniques to maintain the high standards demanded and to advance their knowledge.
Success Stories
The Immersive Tunnels have been well received and are marked out as at the leading edge of this type of ride. Simworx is currently working on its third installation, on the island of Langkawi in Malaysia – a sign of the increasing popularity of cost-effective, indoor media-based attractions in the EMEA region.
“This summer we completed a project for Merlin’s new Shrek’s Adventure midway, the magical 4D DreamWorks Tours bus. The bus is a 40-seat simulator surrounded by a 360º 3D projection, with sensory effects such as water sprays and wind. The ride takes visitors to the kingdom of Far Far Away, meeting lots of DreamWorks characters along the way,” says Monkton.
“We also did a lovely Immersive Tunnel at Movie Park, where you enter a forgotten temple on a Jeep-style 3DOF dynamic motion-based simulator to rescue a scientist,” he says. “You encounter these dinosaurs which interact with the vehicle. When the T-rex charges the vehicle from the side the whole rocks.”
The vehicles come in configurations of 30, 60, 90 and 120 seats and a range of themes and film content can be supplied to create unique attractions.
Among other projects around the world, Simworx and RoboCoaster are working on seven new rides in the UAE, comprising of Immersive Tunnels, Cobra Simulators, 4D Cinemas and RoboCoaster G1s – all of them are attached to high-profile IPs – as well as two major European installations.
New Horizons
Another new innovation that Simworx RoboCoaster has been developing is “show action” technology. Show action robots are used to create visuals and scenes. Robots hold projectors and move along the ride path with the passenger vehicle projecting imagery onto screens, which can also be supported by robots. This opens up huge potential for storytelling, projection mapping and creating visual effects.
“It’s almost like advanced scenery design. One robot with a projector tracks another robot so it’s constantly projecting onto the screen, creating a 3D effect without using 3D technology,” says Monkton. “There are vast opportunities to create different illusions.”
Simworx has also been investing in VR, exploring ways to exploit the technology and develop new experiences around it. The company has used VR to recreate the experience of its existing attractions, a handy tool for communicating with clients around the world, but Monkton is also interested in finding new and innovative ways to bring VR technology into a mainstream visitor attraction experience.
“There’s been lots of development work in house and with external groups. We’ve worked on trackable VR devices that enable people to move around within an attraction using a VR headset with collision detection – basically you can detect other people in the attraction in the VR world,” says Monkton.
To further nurture the innovative design-driven nature of Simworx, the company has set up a division called Simworx Creative, and has established a creative lab of designers, engineers, VR and AV technicians, “a pool of high calibre, highly skilled creatively minded people who are developing technology to implement into wow-factor theme park rides and attractions”. This has also been extended to include team members who work on themeing and storyboarding.
“It’s about continually developing new concepts and technologies to stay ahead of the game,” Monkton says. “The RoboCoaster attractions, the development of VR, show action robotics, holographic technology, interactive technology - these are areas where we invest time and money to stay at the cutting edge and make rides that are different and unique.”
