This is a totally weird concept...

http://www.equipmentworld.com/diggerland-usa-preview/

Aww, I thought it was going to be what my husband keeps saying someone should make. Sort of a giant sandbox where people can play with construction equipment the way they played with the toys as kids.

Actually, you can play/dig with real back hoes and drive real equipment through a course like a turn pike. There is a video in the article showing some of the attractions. some of it is corny but I guess it could be fun in some way.

Lego Land for adults?

Just curious what kind of a draw this place will have because this isn't my type of place at all. I definitely would not go here of my own free will. You'd have to drag me there, offer to pay my way in, plus promise me that we'll leave after just a few hours. Just totally uninteresting to me. However, I'm sure many people feel differently and that's cool.

The only thing that comes to mind is this.

I'm wondering how they can certify those machines for human passengers. The company I work for has a relationship with Kuka robotics...makers of a ride called the Robocoaster. It's simply a high payload 6 axis industrial robot that they mounted a pair of seats with OTS restraints on. I have ridden it, and it is pretty cool.

At a tradeshow a few years ago I spoke to one of the Kuka reps, and he told me how much they had to go through to get those things certified to allow people to ride. He said that while they ultrasound test every major casting for all their robots, only the absolutely perfect ones are allowed to go into the robots for the ride. The controls have redundancies and failsafes built in as well. If you've ever seen a robot "geek out" you would understand the reason for the extra caution...are excavators any different?

Basically, throwing around parts on an assembly line or a bucket of dirt or gravel is very different from throwing people around to give them a thrill. I can only assume they have addressed this, but I'm curious if there are any limits on the machines? Maybe movement speed or range of motion limits?

We have a couple of Fanuc 6 axis robots where I work. When the first one was installed I joked that I wanted to attach a seat to it and have people spin me around. They all thought I was crazy until I found a YouTube video.

This park seems IMHO really boring.

Big Kitty sandbox?