More than 40 years of experience

imetron Gesellschaft für industrielle Mechatronik mbH has been involved in the production of electrical and mechatronic components for over 40 years.
With creativity, curiosity and expertise, we have always found solutions to all the problems that our competitors were unwilling or unable to solve: We wind microscopically small coils for medical technology, manufacture water-cooled switch cabinets for use in the desert or assemble cable harnesses that are used in diving robots at depths of 7,000 metres.

We developed our first stage wagon more than 10 years ago and have continuously improved it, consistently focussing on Mecanum technology as a special effect. More than 180 satisfied customers from the world of events in Europe have placed their trust in us.
Today, we can rely on a modular system of standard components in two sizes and dedicate ourselves to the special wishes of creative people with a great deal of project experience.

In Europe, imetron with its DONKEYmotion brand is among the leading suppliers of Mecanum-based vehicles and has specialized in these smaller-scale systems. The omnidirectional DONKEYmotion transport systems are suitable for virtually all industrial applications. Their unique manoeuvrability opens up entirely new possibilities for Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) in intralogistics as well as for applications such as stage technology.

When a Mecanum wheel turns, two components of force are created: the first points in the direction of rotation of the entire wheel, the second is at right angles to it. Since its rollers are movable, however, the mecanum wheel is not true to track like its ordinary counterpart. If other forces are added, its movement can be deflected in any direction. In vehicles with four Mecanum wheels, the 45-degree angles of the roller axles are each offset by 90 degrees. By itself, each wheel would move diagonally to a different corner of an imaginary rectangle. You can also imagine the system like a nut on a thread. If you stop the nut from turning, it moves along the axis of the thread. If you let go of the nut, however, it stops and rotates around the axis of the thread.
The direction and strength of the driving force of the individual Mecanum wheel depends on its speed of rotation. The precise combination of the direction and speed of rotation of the individual wheels creates the movement of the vehicle in the desired direction. Among other things, DonkeyMotion vehicles are steered quite simply with a joystick. A safety PLC in the vehicle coordinates the movement of the individual Mecanum wheels in order to steer towards the specified target at the desired speed.

The Mecanum wheel was invented in 1973 by Bengt Ilon, an engineer at the Swedish company Mecanum AB. The wheel is sometimes referred to as the Ilon wheel in his honor. The U.S. Navy purchased the patent from Mecanum and initially used the technology exclusively for loading and unloading cargo on their ships. It wasn’t until 1997 that the technology became available for commercial and civilian applications.

To this day, most Mecanum vehicles—similar to those used by the Navy—are employed to transport extremely heavy loads in confined spaces. In the aviation industry, for example, large multi-wheeled Mecanum transporters are used to manoeuvre massive fuselages through production halls. Smaller Mecanum vehicles, however, remain relatively rare.

Vehicles with Mecanum wheels can move completely freely in two dimensions – much like hovercraft – while maintaining full contact with the ground. Whether starting from a standstill or while in motion, they can move in any direction, turn along curves of any radius, or even rotate on the spot. The foundation of this omnidirectional mobility lies in the unique design of the Mecanum wheel.

We are working from two component sets to reach different sizes and enable our products to carry a large range of payloads. Component set S: the smallest building set consists of four wheels with a diameter of 190 mm each. Motor controllers and other electronics are running on a voltage of 24 V DC. Component set M: the larger wheels have a diameter of 300 mm, the voltage supply is 48 V DC. Therefore, we can have payloads starting from 1000 kg and reaching around 2,5 tons for vehicle of standard size. And this is before we talk about enhancement methods, like adding passive wheels or setting up master-slave compound wagons to further increase the payload. With the deep knowledge of the performance of each little part of our building kits, we produced machinery that is moving up to 12 tons on a stage in Mecanum fashion.

One of the highlights of our product range is the option to form large platforms by connecting ever more stage wagons that move like if they were only one vehicle. This scalability gives you an enormous flexibility in your show elements, from turning a single actor with one small Orbiter up to rotating several tons of equipment. Already two of our larger Orbiter M supplemented with a number of support axles are able to move 12 tons. 

You can even mix our M and S wagons within such a system! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu9sfQWceIk  

Of course, all the little pieces that you need like data transfer cables or connecting mechanical elements are part of our toolbox so that you can stay fully focused on your creative ideas.  
 

Graphics user interface

While the Orbiter movement is often done simply with our remote control, the many options to adapt the machine to your stage design require a more sophisticated user interface. This human machine interface allows you to visualise parameters like axle geometries, velocity limits, master/slave declarations and so on very easily. Furthermore, each change that you desire is done via sliders and instantly depicted to have the perfect overview of all configurations.

On another overview page, you will find general vehicle information and maintenance instructions.

If you use the teach-in function frequently, it can be easy to lose track of the up to 32 routes that can be stored. The routes are clearly listed on the parameterisation unit and can be organised and renamed according to your preferences.

Since it is difficult to use industry proven concepts like laser scanners on highly dynamic theatre stages, it becomes more important to ensure personal safety by other methods.
At the heart of our Orbiters we calculate the Mecanum matrix with a safety PLC, which performs a real-time comparison of the commands sent to the motors with the real rotational speeds sensed by the odometry.

In addition to this internal error check, there are a number of emergency stop functions in case external errors are detected: The moving stage trolley has a primary emergency stop switch, which can also be installed in a more convenient position on your stage to ensure immediate availability. A secondary e-stop can be pressed by the operator on the remote control. Finally, we offer external emergency functions to be used from positions that might have better scenic overview than the personell on the remote or at the stage.