SWC and Blue Green Yonder

South West College help local company, Blue Green Yonder realise their vision in creating a innovation adventure experience for children.

About the Case - The challenge

Blue Green Yonder, based in Enniskillen, is a provider of outdoor activity and adventure experiences, including canoeing, kayaking and paddle boarding. The company had a vision to create an interactive adventure experience for children centred around an ‘Interactive Immersive Simulation Pod’.

Through Connected the company was able to sit down with college staff, including some of their technical team, and discuss the vision they had for the pod, any potential issues in the design and the functionality they desired in the completed product.  It was decided that an Invest NI Innovation Voucher would be the next best route for this collaboration to take the project to the next stage. A successful Innovation Voucher was secured.

The main challenge in the innovation voucher project was to design and construct a portable ‘Rhomboid dome’. This structure needed to be sturdy, lightweight, easy to assemble, capable of reverse projection, and accommodate three to four users at any one time. The Rhomboid Dome is intended to be an immersive 360-degree environment where users can get transported to a virtual experience without needing a Virtual Reality (VR) headset.  

The Solution

Fusion 360 3D CAD software was used to create the dome design.  Accurate cutting lists were produced for all the required structural components. Research was conducted to specify the materials to create the initial prototype, which resulted in the specification of 20-mm galvanised steel struts, WangerFlanges (brackets) to connect the struts together, and Polyethylene Vinyl Acetate as the outer skin and suitable material to be used for reverse image projection.

Following the success of this project, SWC continue to support the business and look forward to working with them on their next innovation idea. 

 

 

BGY was very impressed with the assistance of the South West Collage in the development of the Rhombipod. As a development partner it had a full spectrum of capabilities from computer aided design to actual hands-on crafting and prototyping. We would highly recommend them for any cutting-edge product.