Author's Note: Many Disney dark rides are described as 'OmniMover' rides, but are not true Omnimovers. Examples include Journey Into Imagination (post 2000). I'll describe how the 'Modern' OmniMovers work at the end of the article.

The true 'OmniMover' - a combination of "Omnirange" and "PeopleMover" - was invented by Roger Broggie and Burt Brundage in 1968, and the precise details can be found in US Patent No. 3554130 - however, the language may be a little difficult to understand, to put it mildly. So, I'll try to hack my way through the legalese, and give you something easier to read.

Firstly, we need to think about how difficult it was in the 1960's to find computer technology that would reliably track the position of a ride vehicle, and allow it to make rotation or height adjustments as necessary.

As is the case with many Disney ride technologies, the original concept was devised for the 1964-65 World's Fair, in the form of the prototypical "WEDWay/PeopleMover" system used on the Ford Magic skyway. This operated using unpowered 'slave' vehicles, with forward motion maintained by continually rotating flywheels placed along the track length. When making the Disneyland Goodyear PeopleMover, these flywheels were replaced by tires to satisfy the new sponsors, but the concept remained the same. However, one of the main problems with this system was an inability to stop the motion of the vehicles, without evacuating the ride, as once the inertia was lost, rear-ending incidents had a greater chance of occurring. Therefore, when Disney wanted to use a similar ride system in its dark rides, the OmniMover system was developed. This used an electrified rail (or bus bar) to power the vehicles, which were connected in a series of long chains. A main control panel, splitting the ride into different 'zones', controlled the power running through the bar. The power drives a belt system, which moves the car through each zone (this forces the cars to travel at identical speeds throughout their journey, and explains the need for a conveyor belt at load/unload). It can be seen that, in this system the near instant start and stop times, coupled with the connection of the vehicles, prevented the rear-ending issues that blighted the early PeopleMover system. The control and reliability demonstrated by this system became a benchmark for all later Disney ride technologies, including their roller coasters.

The Control Panel allows the power to each ride 'zone' to be controlled independently if necessary. Photo by Bill Iadonisi

The actual orientation of the vehicle is controlled using a rail running alongside the bus bar. Basically, each OmniMover car has an attached rigid 'arm', which runs along this guidance rail. As the rail is contoured towards and away from the bus bar, this arm follows the guide rail, pushing the seat of the vehicle around as it goes and turning it left, right, or even completely backwards. By using a system like this, the rotations are always reliable, and do not require computer assistance (Think of Spaceship Earth, where signal strength would be so weak within the sphere that location data is almost impossible to send, yet there is a need to rotate the vehicles mid-trip).

illustration from US Patent No. 3554130

Photo of Spaceship Earth's wheel & track. Photo by Bill Iadonisi.

In the picture above, we can see part of the swivel assembly (the black tray in the center of the picture, as well as the support rails, which are being followed by the blue and green wheels. These support the vehicle, and the seat assembly respectively. A guide rail at the opposite side controls a second arm, which tilts the seat back and forth, helping to keep you upright, even if the real floor isn't. The purpose of these two units is to control the viewpoint of the guests in the vehicle, so that they are viewing the specific scenes in the attraction as they were intended. It also allows the Imagineers more scope when designing effects, as the equipment needed to generate them can now be hidden in plain sight within the building, but below or behind the vehicle seats out of the view of the guests.

Often the real 'floor' of the building, and the vehicle floor are dramatically different in height, with 'skirts' on the vehicle hiding the difference. In such cases (Haunted Mansion is one), the automated lap bar or door is used, controlled by a gear system under the vehicle floor, and held in place by a latch and spring system, which is then released on unload by a protrusion in the unload area floor.

You may wonder at this stage about Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin - still an OmniMover attraction, but with free rotation of the seats. Again, a similar system is still used, but the joystick now controls the rotation assembly, not the track. Incidentally, the computer used in Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin isn't too dissimilar from the one used in the various airline-themed attractions that occupied that space previously, only now it handles scoring too.

That pretty much concludes the 'true' OmniMover discussion, but what about the modern ones?

The best example of one of these is Journey into Imagination post 2000 - The Nigel Channing Years ;-) The vehicles may look very similar, and most of the systems are the same (zones, rotation etc). However, the extra tracks appear to have gone, to be replaced with direct computer control of the vehicles, more in line with a traditional Disney roller coaster setup. This makes sense, when we consider the fact that laying three parallel tracks in place of one may be seen as excessive nowadays, and certainly explains a reluctance on the part of Disney to update this technology unless truly necessary (see the aforementioned Buzz Lightyear).

While Journey Into Imagination still has the support rails to hold the vehicle, we can now see the additional propulsion, braking and turning systems built into the track, rather than on the vehicle

Photos by Bill Iadonisi