Star Wars: Frontlines of the Republic
A miniature scale theme park attraction themed to feature characters from Star Wars. The goal was to create a miniature-scale replica of theme park ride systems centered on an original story set in the Star Wars universe, incorporating show-control principles focused on robust design and reliable systems that adapt to real-world environments.
Video Demonstrations
(Videos are sped up and trimmed from actual speed due to upload size limits)
The Engineering
The Mechanical Systems
The ride system is a stepper motor-driven turntable. However, as the turntable's radius increased, the ride movements seemed more jagged. Eventually, the motor itself became a barrier to ride efficiency and movement due to its inability to take small enough steps. To solve this, I implemented a 10:1 gear ratio, meaning for every 10 rotations of the motor, the ride completes 1 full run through. This ratio was also set due to speed constraints for show elements.
Gears and mechanical parts were designed in SolidWorks
The driving spur gear was fabricated on a Markforged X7 printer using a Nylon CF blend for strength
An intermediate gear was fabricated using the Formlabs Fuse 1 using Nylon 12 GF powder, and due to its 100% infill, it allowed for better motor shock absorption while maintaining functional rigidity
Attempted to use TPU 90A, but proved not to be rigid enough despite superior shock absorption
The driven output inner spur gear was fabricated on the Prusa Core One+ using Prusament PETG
This gear (the white) is attached to a laser-cut circle of ¼ inch wood that the ship is attached to, but for the sake of demonstrating the mechanical movement, it is not attached here
Individual Characters are directly driven by servo motors for precise and accurate positional control of show elements and timing.
EX: Individual tan B1 Battle Droid closest to the overpass
Multiple characters moved in unison are also driven by servos, but via a rack and pinion with no gear reduction, as opposed to being directly driven.
EX: Group of 6 Droids closest to the left edge of the frame
Other Notes
Floor and bottom covers were fabricated using a Laser Cutter with dimensions sketched in AutoCAD
The ceiling was fabricated using a handheld CNC with dimensions sketched in AutoCAD
The laser cutter was too small to accommodate sizing needs, and the ceiling needed to be 1 single piece to avoid large support structures that would impede the story and ride functions
The Electrical/Control Systems
The entire system is controlled by a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) programmed in Ladder Logic per the IEC 61131-3 standard. The PLC was chosen to meet the reliability and robustness needs of the project.
Stepper motors can technically be used to track displacement by counting their steps, but they aren't always honest. They overstep, understep, or in some cases miss steps entirely. Tracking the transport's position this way would have been spotty at best, leading to show timing mismatches and potentially full ride failures. Instead, IR sensors were embedded into the roof to control each zone of the attraction, so each show element only triggers when the ride vehicle is actually present. This allowed for accurate car tracking and precisely timed show elements every time, even if the car ran slowly, fast, or stopped entirely.
The architecture also intentionally keeps the analog signal running short. Routing the sensors' analog outputs from the ceiling down to the floor-mounted microcontroller would have exposed those low-level signals to EMI from the stepper motor, servo PWM lines, and lighting circuits running through the structure. Instead, the analog signal terminates at the PLC near the sensors, and only a clean digital 5 V logic signal travels down to the microcontroller, which is far more robust against noise over distance.
IR sensors continuously search for the ride vehicle and send an analog signal to the PLC upon detection
The PLC only activates a zone when the analog signal crosses the threshold defined in the ladder logic
Upon reading the signal, the PLC opens a relay that sends a 5 V (HIGH) signal to a microcontroller in the floor of the attraction
The microcontroller commands the servo motors to their target angles, while the PLC retains full control of sensor reading and timing
This split keeps all timing-critical decisions on the deterministic PLC and offloads motion commands to dedicated hardware
To tie the electrical system together, I designed a custom PCB in KiCad that handled signal routing and power distribution to the lighting, microcontroller, and PLC. I fabricated the board myself on the LPKF S104 ProtoMat.
Screw terminals were used throughout to minimize the chance of connections loosening under ride operation
12 V came in to power the PLC and the lighting directly
A buck converter stepped the 12 V down to 5 V for the relay outputs, microcontroller, and sensors
An external 6 V supply powered the stepper motor and servos due to their higher current draw
The Story
Guests are transported to Umbara during the Clone Wars. In the wake of the 501st's victory over the traitorous General Pong Krell, the Separatists have exploited the Republic's internal turmoil to seize key territory. At the clone base, General Anakin Skywalker meets them with a mission: destroy a newly built Separatist droid factory.
After receiving your mission from General Skywaker, you join Captain Rex and the 501st, venturing through the jungle in search of the new Separatist droid factory
Suddenly, you are ambushed by a Separatist droid patrol caught in a firefight between the 501st and Separatist forces.
After narrowly escaping the Droid ambush, you make your way to the Separatist droid factory along with the 501st and destroy the factory.
“In my book, experience outranks everything” - Captain Rex
Set and Show Design
The Environment
Umbara was chosen specifically for its visual identity in the Star Wars canon. The planet's perpetual twilight, bioluminescent flora, and near-monochrome palette give the attraction a built-in atmosphere that most planets in the universe can't match, and, crucially, the dark base palette lets all the lighting and characters read clearly against the environment. Visual references were pulled directly from the Umbara arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Season 4, Episodes 7-10) to keep the environment grounded in canon.
Establishing the world
The ground and tentacled foliage are saturated purple throughout, with white paint speckled across the floor to suggest distant stars or ambient particulate
Red and purple fixtures mounted overhead wash the entire scene in Umbara's signature twilight, kept always-on to act as a static atmospheric layer rather than a programmed cue
The foliage pods are painted with UV-reactive red pigment and activated by a black light aimed at a specific section of the ride — recreating Umbara's bioluminescence without needing electronics in every plant, and creating a clear visual focal point as the turntable rotates past
Storytelling within the environment
The ride opens at a Republic clone base with a parked gunship, Anakin, and clones staged in formation, anchoring the guest on the Republic side before the turntable carries them into hostile territory
The droid factory is finished in a gold-brown-tan palette that intentionally clashes with the purple environment, making the Separatist facility read as an industrial intrusion on the landscape
Inside the factory, droid parts sit on a stationary conveyor belt; the implied motion gives the guest a clear "this is what we're here to stop" beat without burning a motor on background dressing
Fabrication
Terrain and buildings were FDM-printed in PLA on the Prusa Core One and Core One+, using neutral filament that was then sanded, primed, and hand-painted
Foliage was also FDM-printed in PLA — the J850 didn't have UV-reactive resin available, so printing in neutral PLA and hand-applying UV-reactive paint to the pods was the only path to the bioluminescent effect described above
The Republic gunship was printed in sections on the Stratasys J850 and assembled after the fact, taking advantage of the J850's surface quality for the vehicle's smooth panel work
The droid factory was printed as a single piece on the Prusa Core One L, whose larger build volume allowed the entire structure to come off the bed without seams or assembly required
All printed scenic pieces went through a full sanding pass for layer line removal, a primer coat, and finish paint — chosen over multi-color resin printing to keep the workflow scalable across the volume of scenic material the ride required
The Characters
Every figure in the attraction was 3D-printed in full color on a Stratasys J850, a PolyJet printer capable of depositing multiple resin colors in a single print. Character models were sourced from Galactic Armory's library of Star Wars 3D assets, then painted in Microsoft 3D Paint to apply color directly to the model files before slicing. The full-color prints came off the machine ready to stage, with no post-paint required.
Roster
Anakin Skywalker and an assortment of clone troopers staged throughout the attraction
B1 Battle Droids and Super Battle Droids were placed throughout the ambush and factory zones
Workflow
Models pulled from Galactic Armory, with the default circular display base removed on most characters to let them sit naturally in the scenic terrain
Color was painted directly onto the 3D files in Microsoft 3D Paint before being sent to the J850
Characters were printed at roughly 1:48 scale with minor variation due to Microsoft Paint scaling issues and balancing etail with printability
Post-processing was limited to support removal in the J850's lye bath, no sanding, sealing, or topcoat needed, thanks to the multi-color resin finish
