Rodney Heiligmann is one of those unique individuals who has always had a very clear vision of what he wanted to be when he grew up (we emphasize when) - and that is working in the Amusement and Themed Entertainment industry. His passion and love of the industry is evident in his energetic leadership style. Challenges are embraced, creativity is required but above all, he is on a quest to provide guests with memorable experiences - much like those that inspired him as a child resulting in his position as President of LifeFormations.
He recently sheepishly shared a research paper he produced in college on the history of animatronics or lifelike robots. We convinced him to let us share a few snippets with you.
Here is the first in a new series of blog entries we will post on the history animatronics.
Enjoy!
Modern Uses of Lifelike Robots
In 1939, Westinghouse Electric Corporation built a mechanical man capable of performing 26 movements and responding to commands spoken into a microphone (Simons, 1983). The mechanical man was built for the New York World's Fair; it converted words into electrical impulses, which were used to operate relays controlling 11 motors.
Twenty years later, advancements in hydraulics, pneumatics, electronics, and computer controls provided a visionary by the name of Walt Disney with the technology he had been looking for to create life-size, three-dimensional animated figures (Bright, 1987). He named his newly created technology audio-animatronics. Disney's first major project with the newly developed audio-animatronics was an animated Abraham Lincoln. Inside Lincoln were 16 airlines to his head, hands, and wrists and 14 hydraulic lines to his body. These controls gave Lincoln 15 facial expressions and 22 body movements. Based on the success of this figure, Disney was hired by a number of different companies to build audio-animatronic displays for the 1964 World's Fair. Perhaps the most popular exhibit was called Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, in which an animated Abraham Lincoln told the audience about his life and times.
The handful of companies capable of using the sophisticated technology required to make lifelike animated figures, or animatronics, have traditionally targeted theme parks as their primary customers (Hitchcox, 1993). Because these figures are created for a live exhibits instead of for motion pictures, they must perform consistently accurate, precise, and particularly lifelike movements several times a day (Horgan, 1993). A 16-foot-tall animated figure of a cat, "Tiger," not only performs, but also converses and interacts with members of the audience in Universal Studios' "Fival Goes West Musical Review" (Martinez, 1993). Tiger's movements are designed to look as real as possible. To accomplish this feat, the designers used 11 different movements including a waist turn, waist bend, head turn, head nod, head tilt, left forearm up and down, right forearm up and down, left shoulder up and down, right shoulder up and down, left forearm in and out, and right forearm in and out. This use of movements is a typical setup for a figure using a limited number of movements to achieve lifelike results. Most other theme-park exhibits, including the very popular ones of dinosaurs, use the same types of movements to achieve a lifelike appearance (Horgan, 1993).
