Winter Garden, Florida, United States
In my 12+ years at Disney I’ve been responsible for the architecture, design, and implementation of many of our modern dimensional animation/motion systems used with our Audio-Animatronic figures. A few examples include figures for Radiator Springs Racers, Seven Dwarf Mine Train, Frozen Ever After, Lightening McQueens Racing Academy, and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. In addition, I’ve helped drive the overall architecture of show systems for many new and updated attractions. The vast majority of any attraction that has either opened or was rehabbed in the last decade at Disney theme parks globally is running software that I had the responsibility to develop and maintain. In my current role, I’m responsible for the overall show systems architecture for new WDI attractions in Florida and I act as the technical lead over the FL software team. Some areas of expertise include: Motion Control and servo systems Audio-Animatronics Control system design Show systems architecture and engineering Software engineering SCADA system development Robotics and plant automation PLC programming (TwinCAT, Allen Bradley) Windows Kernel driver development RTOS development Windows application development (C/C++, C#, VB, Delphi) Database development (SQL Server, Oracle)
I am responsible for the overall show systems design and architecture for new WDI based attractions at Walt Disney World. In addition to that, I was brought into WDI to take the work we did at “Frozen Ever After” for audio-animatronics and work with the WDI Tech Studio to create an architecture that allowed us to quickly go from concept to design to production. Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway both used this architecture. Accomplishments: - Worked with the WDI Tech Studio to evolve/enhance the “Frozen Ever After” system to create an architecture that allows us to quickly go from concept to design to production. This system has thus far been used in Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. - Principle software architect behind the show systems on Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, the Galactic Starcruiser, and Cosmic Rewind (particularly the transformation room.)
My team was responsible for show control systems across Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, and the development and support of show related software that is used in Disney parks worldwide. While in this role, I lead the architecture and implementation of a new audio-animatronic animation system used in Epcot’s “Frozen Ever After.” This was in addition to leading the overall architecture of the entire show system including the supervisor and safety systems. We would later use this same animation system across many new and legacy attractions in Disney parks around the globe. This includes Slinky Dog Dash, Grand Fiesta Tour, Hall of Presidents, Pirates of the Caribbean, and a BB-8 meet and greet which features the first audio-animatronic figure that can be touched/hugged by guests in a Disney park. Accomplishments: - Developed a new system for doing electric function based animatronics (but maintained backwards compatibility with hydraulic/pneumatic figures.) This was first deployed in “Frozen Ever After” and later was used for Slinky Dog Dash, Grand Fiesta Tour, Hall of Presidents, Pirates of the Caribbean (CA and FL), and the BB-8 meet and greet (Hong Kong and FL). - I was also responsible for the overall show architecture for “Frozen Ever After” as it was a fast track project, with less than 18 months to complete. - Lead the team that developed the first ever huggable audio-animatronic in a park (BB-8.) - Worked with WDI R&D on a new custom integrated actuator for use in the next generation of expressive heads. This was used in the “Hall of Presidents” on the Trump figure. - Managed a team of up to 14 people with the responsibility of working with WDI on new attractions, DCL on updates to show/spaces on cruise ships, DPLE on new live shows, and FOS on sustainment of existing attractions/assets on the parks.
As a senior engineer, I worked on a variety of projects ranging from integrating Stewart Platform kinematic algorithms and an OpenGL based virtual Re-diffusion simulator into our live programming system used to animate the simulators for Star Tours 2.0, to working with WDI R&D on a new all electric articulated head that was used (initially) in Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. These same heads and system were later used in both Disneyland and Walt Disney World for Ariel’s Under the Sea attraction and also in Pirates of the Caribbean for the Auctioneer. One of the most interesting was developing the audio-animatronic system used for Radiator Springs Racers in Disney’s California Adventure. This represented the first deployment of completely electric audio-animatronic figures in a Disney attraction. Accomplishments: - Wrote a custom EtherCAT ENI file generator that could scan an EtherCAT bus and create an ENI XML file for our proprietary EtherCAT master (before any documentation from Beckhoff existed on how to do this) - I created custom “bridge” software (including a custom OPC DA server) that allowed our proprietary systems to talk to various PLCs. - Integrated stewart platform kinematics into our (now legacy) hydraulic/pneumatic animation system for Star Tours 2 and helped design the overall architecture of the show systems. - Designed and implemented the software to run the first all-electric expressive head in “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.” - Designed and implemented the control system used in Radiator Springs Racers for the first 100% electric figures in a Disney Park. - Updated software that runs in the Enchanted Tiki Room and Country Bear Jamboree. - Took over our (now legacy) hydraulic/pneumatic animation system and proceeded to make many fixes/updates to it over time. - Worked with WDI to create custom software for integrating our (now legacy) animation system into the TwinCAT platform. This was deployed all through Shanghai Disneyland.
As part of the engineering team, I was responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining software for plant production. Some of the hardware includes PLCs, Motoman robots, extruders, compressors, conveyors, and mixing systems. I’m was also responsible for monitoring, and maintaining our load balanced terminal servers, and our clustered SQL Server. Accomplishments: - Wrote a complete .Net HMI framework utilizing OPC. All of the screens and OPC connection information is generated dynamically from XML data files. The framework also has a built in configure mode allowing you to make changes to an HMI on the fly. I have also written custom historians to store data for reporting and trending utilizing VB.net, C# and SQL Server. - Developed all the software for a full plastics mixing tower system (new system) by utilizing the above-mentioned framework, and integrated it into an existing mixing tower (making both appear as one large system.) - Also developed many other systems including systems for extruders, grinders, packaging lines, conveyors (including one ½ mile long), and custom assembly machines. - Helped develop a custom vision system for an assembly machine to analyze glue placement, and picket spacing/alignment for vinyl fencing. - Integrated 3 Motoman robots into our software architecture, including recipe management for each robot. - Developed a basic WMS (warehouse management system) utilizing Symbol MC3090 mobile computers utilizing both the compact .net 2.0 framework, and embedded visual C++ 4.0 - Architected our automation server solution. It consists of 3 load balanced terminal servers that a variety of thin clients connect too, and a clustered set of servers used for our SQL Server database and several virtual servers running custom written services.
Responsibilities included developing applications and reports using Oracle 9i, SQL Server 2000, C#, VB.NET, and Crystal Report. Accomplishments: - Developed various web-based applications and web services utilizing VB.NET, and C#. The applications also used SQL Server 2000, Oracle 9i, and Crystal RAS (Remote Application Server). These include (but not limited too) systems for tracking and displaying delinquent lands, an online searchable employee directory, a reporting interface into our Helptrac system (used by our IT to handle support), and a system for displaying the status of purchases by the office of the auditor. - Developed a web based system in which our office, and other state agencies can log onto a website and retrieve their notice of deposit information electronically using VB.Net, Oracle 9i, and Crystal RAS. This is the first step at the offices plan to eliminate paper NODs. Also as part of this project, I am generating flat positional flat files that are PGP encrypted and sent to the State Treasurer, WVU, and Marshall University for their internal payroll systems.
Responsible for upgrading existing systems from an IBM AIX environment into a Microsoft SQL Server environment, along with developing new systems for internal use. Accomplishments: - Developed a medical imaging system to scan medical records into a system, perform OCR to extract client information, and store both the client information and an image of the document into a SQL Server 2000 database. - Automated exporting data from an old IBM AIX system into SQL Server utilizing DTS, to perform reporting in Crystal Reports 9. - Developed a client review data entry system utilizing VB.NET, SQL Server, Crystal Reports 9, and Crystal RAS.