Avatar Land

11/27/2014

Well since I recently went to the Animal Kingdom (and it was AWESOME!!!), I was lucky enough to get a few small sneak peeks at the construction going on; And what I found was this, it's going to be big! Not only from my eyes but also from satellites and from reports and releases I was digging through. It's also going to have amazing technology, which I'll be talking about later. Now let's get started on this great journey, and we might even find some unobtanium along the way.

Development

Well, I was just doing some research and I found this awesome quote by Avatar creator, James Cameron, that practically gives me goosebumps.

"It’s going to have floating mountains. It’s pretty cool. I’ve seen the model and the design work the Imagineering people have done is spectacular. They’ve got a quarter inch to the foot scale model of the whole park and I’ve looked at all the sight lines…it’s not a park, it’s a land within the park but a land is not just a ride. There will be several rides and a number of other attractions. It’s really just a place you’re gonna wanna go and hang out. It’s gonna be gorgeous. Of course it’s gonna be gorgeous at night and they’re using every new trick, every new bit of technology that they’ve created.

The animatronics for the Na’vi characters are gonna be fantastic. For example, their early animatronics would use 12 axis of motion and I think the most they’ve ever done was 32 axis recently. I think they’re up to 64 just in the face of the Na’vi characters. So it’s gonna be remarkable. They really see it as a major, major attraction."

Yes , he did say it's going to have floating mountains. I think what he said after that has a lot to do with one of Imagineering's big missions, "...it’s not a park, it’s a land within the park but a land is not just a ride.", it shows it's not just a theme park or attraction. But they are creating what seems to be a whole different world. Well, we better get back to the development.
Well, let's try to break down some of that tech. and I'll try to explain it in simpler terms and figure what makes it tick.

I really like working with and programming robots, so I end up getting pretty involved it and so this why this statement interests so much. An axis is a straight line around which an object rotates. Movement at the joint take place in a plane about an axis. The degrees of freedom of a robot typically refer to the number of movable joints of a robot. A robot with three movable joints will have three axis and three degrees of freedom, a four axis robot will have four movable joints and four axis, and so on:

One axis – can pick up an object and move it along a straight line
Two axis – can pick up an object, lift it, move it horizontally and vertically, and set it down or present it – on one x/y plane - without changing the object’s orientation
Three axis – can pick up an object, lift it, move it horizontally and vertically and set it down or present it – anywhere in x,y,z space within reach of the robot – without changing the object’s orientation
Four axis – can pick up an object, lift it, move it horizontally and set it down or present it – in x,y, z space – while changing the object’s orientation along one axis (yaw for example)
Five axis – can pick up an object, lift it, move it horizontally and set it down – in an x,y,z space – while changing the object’s orientation along two axis (yaw and pitch for example)
Six axis – can pick up an object, lift it, move it horizontally and set it down – in an x,y,z space – while changing the object’s orientation along three axis (yaw, pitch and roll).
Seven axis – all of the movement capability of a six axis robot, along with the ability to physically move the robot from one place to another in a linear direction

For humans and human-like animatronics have three vital axis of motion

Sagital axis
Frontal axis
Vertical axis

The sagital axis passes horizontally from posterior to anterior and is formed by the intersection of the sagital and transverse planes. The frontal axis passes horizontally from left to right and is formed by the intersection of the frontal and transverse planes.The vertical axis passes vertically from inferior to superior and is formed by
the intersection of the sagital and frontal planes.

Well, now that you know what axis are. You may now realize how amazing 64 axis of motion are. That would be so extremly lifelike because that essentially means there are 64 points of motion, in just their face! Think about the rest of the animatronic!

Now, for the floating mountains. I'm actually not quite certain what they are using for that. My best guess would be electromagnets/magnets or illusion. But I do know this. It's going to be amazing!

Rides

Well, so far the only rides released are a boat ride and a flight simulator. According to ScreamScape the slow family boat ride is intended to essentially serve as a crash course in PANDORA 101, a way to bring all guests up to speed on the world of Avatar, and why humans have traveled across the stars to visit. Intended as a sort of informational family attraction, the overall tone of the ride’s theme may actually have a bit in common with one of the Edutainment rides at Epcot. In short, this of this as a Pandora version of “Living with the Land”, showing guests the various plant and animal lifeforms of this new world. The flight simulator is 3D and seems to be somewhat similar to an more advanced (if you will) version of Soarin'.