Do the bots actually need breaks?

[Beach Bear]

Do the bots from RAE, MMBB, and Studio C actually need to take 15 minute breaks between shows? Or do they just do that to make it seem realistic?

[Vega III CEC]

Part of it is to be realistic and yes, they do need breaks. Think about it. If you let one thing run all day, every day versus giving the same thing a break (in this case the thing being robots), then parts will last a bit longer theoretically.

[Larry the Tech]

From what I know, the Intermissions gave bots the time to rest and that way, they'll be in full function next show. This is why we need curtains back. The bots just keep moving around until closing, and so some of the parts get broken. I think shows that used to have curtains worked a lot better.

Do Existing stages still use Sleep Mode btw?

[VegaNova]

If the animatronics ran continually (at the rate they're designed to) it would probably do quite a bit of wear and tear.

But one of the bigger reasons might be the air pressure. The RAE takes quite a bit of pressure to run, and most fans have a tough time getting theirs to run a 15 minute show without the air dropping and causing the animation to become sluggish toward the end of the show (this is with a decent compressor and a large, or series, of reserve tanks). Granted stores use quite strong compressors and tanks compared to what most fans have, but even then I'm not sure if the shows could run all day long).

[yorkmiss]

It is a federal law - you get breaks every so often.

I'm with Vega on this. The compressors would burn up if you left them running a 3 stage non stop all day. Not to mention, you need to let the air dryer do its job too.

The other factor is wear. ALL mechanical devices had some kind of wear. If you took a show that runs for 5 minutes and takes a 15 minute break, and cut the break time down to 5 minutes, you would tripple the abount of wear on the device, and tripple the amount of maintainence needs and tripple the cost of operating the show (power for all those lights and air compressors isn't free.)

There are very few examples of animatronics that are made to run non stop for long periods of time. One being most Disney high capacity rides. (Such as Pirates and Splash Mountain) But those are so abused, they are taken down for a couple of weeks a year just to rebuild them during the rehab time.

[captslappy]

I think the air compressor issue is the biggest reason as the others have said. It needs a break, especially given older shows gradually get air leaks. That is one of the bad things about looped movements although the cyberamic bots use far less air than the Rock-afire robots. Even with minimal movements when the 3 stage MMBB is looking around it still doesn't really give the compressor a break although a proper large industrial compressor the restaurant has can probably handle it.

I think at this point you have to consider that for 3 months, the show loops an hour's worth of material so the breaks are needed just so you don't completely burn out on the show immediately. It helps to stretch it out a bit more.