Three, two, one, go – with this countdown researchers from the Institute of Solid Mechanics, Mechatronics and Biomechanics at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of BUT in Brno start their measurements of slides and chutes across Moravia. Their goal is to develop specialised software that would make it possible to design dry toboggans giving visitors sufficient adrenaline from the ride but at the same time being safe. An interest in the software has been voiced by the Alfeko company from Třebíč which is currently designing the longest toboggan in the world. The 220-metre long slide should be built in an amusement park in South Korea.

Photo: archive of FME

Dozens of rides down slides, input data from sensors and a few bruises are the outputs of test measurements carried out by the researcher Stanislav Věchet from the Institute of Solid Mechanics, Mechatronics and Biomechanics at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Together with his team they are working on developing software that will enable the virtual design and testing of slides.

“Before each ride we put a load of certain weight inside the sliding bag together with a nine-axis sensor commonly found in mobile phones. During the ride we measure what is happening with the sensor. Specifically, we measure the acceleration in three axes, speed in three axes, tilting, which is a combination of acceleration and a magnetometer also in three axes,” describes the researcher Stanislav Věchet.

Sometimes it is a load weighing 10 kilograms, at other times the researchers themselves may be seated in the toboggan. This activity that would make many a child desire to become a researcher has great significance at the beginning of developing the software. “We measure passages on existing slides in order to acquire input data on the sliding properties of materials when riding down the chutes. And we also test materials for the future development of software that would enable the company to predict in advance how fast the visitors will ride on the slide, whether they will not pile up inside the tunnel or, vice versa, whether they will not come out of it at too great a speed,” explained the director of the Institute of Solid Mechanics, Mechatronics and Biomechanics at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Jindřich Petruška. The software that will be developed on the basis of the acquired data will reliably model the parameters of a child or an adult in various types of sliding bag.

Photo: archive of FME

The software development project has been conceived in cooperation with the Alfeko company from Třebíč which designs and manufactures slides. Their range on show includes short slides in children’s playgrounds as well as long dry toboggans in amusement parks.

The Alfeko company was motivated to collaborate with the Brno engineers by a number of factors. “We were approached by a client in South Korea who wishes to build the world’s longest slide, 220 m long, but does not have a suitable slope for it. The existing primacy is owned by a slide in London that is 170 m long. We believe that the software will enable us to design the slide so that people could shoot down fast and at the same time safely, preventing injuries to the legs or hands,” described the Alfeko company executive Libor Wurm adding that so far engineers have designed slides based on their experience without similar virtual models.

The researchers from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering have completed several measurements in amusement parks, including the longest Czech slide in Dolní Morava, which is 110 metres long. They are now returning from the field to their computers to process all the amassed data. They plan to finish the development of the software by the end of this year.