Bringing a board game to life with CODESYS

How do you translate a 40-year-old board game into a dynamic, safety-critical amusement ride? For aufwind RIDES, the answer was a control architecture capable of delivering deterministic performance, precise motion control, and certified safety within a highly constrained physical environment.

Commissioned by Ravensburger Spieleland, the objective was to create an interactive ‘manhunt’ ride experience inspired by the game Scotland Yard. The concept required real-time coordination between multiple moving elements within a compact footprint, placing significant demands on both control performance and system integration. Safety-critical logic had to meet stringent regulatory requirements while maintaining real-time responsiveness. At the same time, vehicle navigation had to remain reliable within a tight driving layout; and multiple subsystems, including turntables, motion platforms, sliding gates and synchronised media elements, needed to operate as a single coordinated system.

To meet these requirements, aufwind RIDES implemented a compact, high-performance control platform based on the Berghof B-Fortis CC-Slim Dualcore controller, programmed using CODESYS. The controller was selected for its dual-core processing capability, allowing separation of tasks, as well as its independent Ethernet interfaces and stability in real-time industrial environments.

The system architecture separates global coordination from localised, safety-critical functions. A central Berghof CC-Slim S05 Dualcore controller manages the overall ride environment, including turntables, motion platforms, rolling gates and curtain systems, while coordinating the broader ride sequence. Continuous monitoring of vehicle positions enables dynamic travel authorisation, ensuring safe spacing and smooth progression throughout the attraction. Each vehicle is equipped with two redundant CC-Slim Duo controllers, providing fault-tolerant operation through redundant evaluation of safety-critical sensor data. One controller is dedicated to navigation, while the other manages steering, ensuring both functional separation and compliance with safety requirements.

Deterministic communication is achieved via EtherCAT, which is used to monitor and enforce safe states across the system. For the immersive component, motion data is transmitted from a media server to the control system via TCP, ensuring precise synchronisation between servo axes and digital content. This tight integration between physical motion and media elements is critical to delivering a seamless user experience.

By leveraging the flexibility of a CODESYS-based control environment, aufwind RIDES was able to rapidly iterate and refine ride logic during commissioning. The result is a highly reliable, fully integrated system that translates the strategic gameplay of Scotland Yard into a real-time physical experience, demonstrating how industrial control technologies can be successfully applied to complex, safety-critical entertainment environments.

Image: Supplied