The Expo in Shanghai closed its gates on 31 October, 2010, after welcoming over 72 000 000 visitors. The highlight of the German pavilion was the ‘energy centre’, with an interactive pendulum, which could be made to swing by calls from the visitors and projected pictures on the subject of ‘balancity – city in balance.’ Developed by the University of Stuttgart in cooperation with Milla und Partner Agentur & Ateliers, Beckhoff technology worked in the background as part of the complex drive equipment in the pendulum.
Under the motto ‘balancity,’ the aim, in connection with the guiding theme of the Expo ‘Better City, Better Life’, was to show how cities can gain quality of life and versatility from the harmonic interaction of all elements and forces. Visitors to the German pavilion were accordingly guided by a future vision of urban life, which was borne by the balance between renewal and preservation, innovation and tradition, urbanity and nature, community and individual, work and leisure, and globalisation and national identity.
The highlight of the German pavilion was the interactive show in the energy centre: A ball with a diameter of three metres, fitted with almost 400 000 LEDs, was suspended on a thin rod. The ball, weighing around 1,2 tons, was made to swing by the calls and hand claps of the visitors via a drive integrated into the ceiling of the pavilion. Even the direction of swing of the pendulum could be influenced by the acoustic signals. Pictures and films from Germany were created on the ball. The energy from the interaction of the different forces was reflected by the intensification of the colours and the acceleration of the circular movement. The concept and development of the interactive pendulum arose out of a joint project of the Institute of Technical and Numeric Mechanics (ITM), the Institute of Control Engineering of Machine Tools and Manufacturing Units (ISW) and the Institute for Machine Elements (IMA) at the University of Stuttgart, together with the Stuttgart-based exhibition design company Milla und Partner.
The control and drive concept, the design and calculation of the lifetime of the pendulum rod as well as the sensors were planned and developed by the University of Stuttgart. The drive concept ensures that the pendulum is reliably set in motion as desired and safely decelerated again. The basis for this is a servomotor-driven cross table with a universal joint. Metron was entrusted with the design and construction of the drive equipment. The movement of the ball is controlled by a Beckhoff C6140 control cabinet industrial PC and a CP7902 control panel. The basic functions of the controller were programmed using the Beckhoff TwinCAT PLC automation software and TwinCAT HMI is used for the visualisation. The safety functions of the machine are guaranteed by the TwinSAFE software-based safety solution from Beckhoff. Commissioning was performed jointly by the University of Stuttgart, Metron and Beckhoff Automation.
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