In late 2023, I was once again contracted by Artistic Entertainment Services (AES) to reconfigure the animatronic control system I designed and built with them for the 2023 parade for reuse on the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park’s 2024 Tournament of Roses entry. Like last year, this float features a cast of zoo residents animated to interact with riders on the float. I am thrilled that this float won the sweepstakes award for the most beautiful entry!

For configuring Gilderfluke based animation control systems for the Rose Parade, I need a handful of computer accessories which are only available as individual components and would be both expensive to purchase and annoying to carry in the field. I built my own Gilder-Ground Support Equipment, or G2SE, box which combines several of these devices in a convenient rugged enclosure.

In late 2022, I was contracted by Artistic Entertainment Services (AES) to design and program an animatronic control system for the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park’s 2023 Tournament of Roses entry. This rapid turnaround project leveraged compact electrical and hydraulic driven mechanisms to animate a pair of giraffes which park guests are interacting with from the back of a safari truck.

On the morning of January 1, 2019, the La Cañada Flintridge Rose Parade float’s new animation system successfully made its debut, animating the float Tree Frog Night.

Testing, calibrating, and programming of the La Cañada Flintridge float’s animation system requires some support hardware. The system uses several communications busses, as well as several hardware enable and status lines which all need to be accessed for programming.

The new La Cañada Flintridge Rose Parade float’s animation system has a controller unlike anything used in the parade. The custom controller has a 12 inch waterproof touchscreen that sports a custom control GUI and convenient system configuration capabilities.

The new La Cañada Flintridge rose parade float’s animation system is built in several modular pieces. Four identical units will be valve bank modules, which are responsible for controlling a bank of four hydraulic animation channels.

As of 2018, the La Cañada Flintridge rose parade float’s animation system is nearly 20 years old. As the system continues to age, components that are no longer manufactured are slowly beginning to fail. Starting in 2017, I began work on a replacement.