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Miniatur Wunderland
Miniatur Wunderland - the only place in the world where in one room you can see several European countries in miniature. Lively and amazingly detailed exposition hides a whole arsenal of technologies.
In 2000, the brothers Frederick and Gerrit Browns undertook a major project - construction in Hamburg, the world's largest toy railroad. Nine years later Miniatur Wunderland is not just a railway, and the whole world in miniature, covering an area of 1150 square meters. m and includes more than 10 thousand. locomotives and wagons, 700 trains, almost 1 thousand. semaphores, 4 thousand. cars, 160 thousand. unique figures of people, as well as several ships.
Almost everything in the exhibition moves and lives its own life: changing the time of day on the streets of turn on and off lights, trains, trucks and barges carry cargo, the police catch offenders, fire brigades go to the challenges, people walking in the park, ride a cable car, lunch at lawns, swimming, waiting for the bus, go skiing. In short, do what their prototypes of the big world.
To create all this, in addition to nine years of hard work the brothers took 4 tons of steel, 700 kg of artificial grass and about $ 16 million.
the roads Miniatur Wunderland simultaneously move hundreds of different car models. To organize such heavy traffic needed a complex system in which computing processes occur not only in the host computer, but in every tiny car.
In Miniatur Wunderland present as vehicles moving on a cyclic route (trucks or buses, for example), and the machine that have no destination. At every intersection or turn the machine itself decides where to go. However, before this she tells the host computer of their intentions, and he helps her make the maneuver without getting into an accident. This system works with the machine, for example, is preparing to leave the highway. At the same moment, another car might decide to reorganize into the left lane and cause a collision. Coordination by the host computer eliminates these situations.
Serious difficulties arose from developers in building ships that could not only walk on the waves themselves reservoirs Miniatur Wunderland, but approaching, and sailed in automatic mode. Navigation system with which model ships move "on the high seas" is not suitable for docking process, because it is not accurate enough.
To ship docked without physical damage, according to the site miniatur-wunderland.com, requires an accuracy of 1 mm. Only this will allow the accuracy of the data to calculate the location of the ship and its speed - the parameters critically necessary to complete a successful maneuver.
Initially, the developers tried to use infrared cameras are the same as those used for fixing the photo finish in sports. However, different height of ships and water levels, optical distortion of lenses, glare and other factors required writing too heavy software is to record all adverse factors would require this supercomputer. As a result, after writing 15 thousand. Strings, this method was rejected as unsuitable.
Then it was decided to use ultrasonic devices for maneuvering. After a series of trial and error, the developers have created a mechanism by which the system makes eight measurements per second and comparing them, finds the average result, the accuracy of which is acceptable for filigree sea maneuvers. Simultaneously, the system was developed using an infrared laser and which is capable to ensure the accuracy of 0 to 6 mm.
Software to work with these systems is almost complete. Now it includes a more than 75 thousand. Lines of code and is about to be introduced in the ships sailing in the waters of Miniatur Wunderland.
In 2000, the brothers Frederick and Gerrit Browns undertook a major project - construction in Hamburg, the world's largest toy railroad. Nine years later Miniatur Wunderland is not just a railway, and the whole world in miniature, covering an area of 1150 square meters. m and includes more than 10 thousand. locomotives and wagons, 700 trains, almost 1 thousand. semaphores, 4 thousand. cars, 160 thousand. unique figures of people, as well as several ships.
Almost everything in the exhibition moves and lives its own life: changing the time of day on the streets of turn on and off lights, trains, trucks and barges carry cargo, the police catch offenders, fire brigades go to the challenges, people walking in the park, ride a cable car, lunch at lawns, swimming, waiting for the bus, go skiing. In short, do what their prototypes of the big world.
To create all this, in addition to nine years of hard work the brothers took 4 tons of steel, 700 kg of artificial grass and about $ 16 million.
the roads Miniatur Wunderland simultaneously move hundreds of different car models. To organize such heavy traffic needed a complex system in which computing processes occur not only in the host computer, but in every tiny car.
In Miniatur Wunderland present as vehicles moving on a cyclic route (trucks or buses, for example), and the machine that have no destination. At every intersection or turn the machine itself decides where to go. However, before this she tells the host computer of their intentions, and he helps her make the maneuver without getting into an accident. This system works with the machine, for example, is preparing to leave the highway. At the same moment, another car might decide to reorganize into the left lane and cause a collision. Coordination by the host computer eliminates these situations.
Serious difficulties arose from developers in building ships that could not only walk on the waves themselves reservoirs Miniatur Wunderland, but approaching, and sailed in automatic mode. Navigation system with which model ships move "on the high seas" is not suitable for docking process, because it is not accurate enough.
To ship docked without physical damage, according to the site miniatur-wunderland.com, requires an accuracy of 1 mm. Only this will allow the accuracy of the data to calculate the location of the ship and its speed - the parameters critically necessary to complete a successful maneuver.
Initially, the developers tried to use infrared cameras are the same as those used for fixing the photo finish in sports. However, different height of ships and water levels, optical distortion of lenses, glare and other factors required writing too heavy software is to record all adverse factors would require this supercomputer. As a result, after writing 15 thousand. Strings, this method was rejected as unsuitable.
Then it was decided to use ultrasonic devices for maneuvering. After a series of trial and error, the developers have created a mechanism by which the system makes eight measurements per second and comparing them, finds the average result, the accuracy of which is acceptable for filigree sea maneuvers. Simultaneously, the system was developed using an infrared laser and which is capable to ensure the accuracy of 0 to 6 mm.
Software to work with these systems is almost complete. Now it includes a more than 75 thousand. Lines of code and is about to be introduced in the ships sailing in the waters of Miniatur Wunderland.
