Health and Safety

Chaos Karts is designed to be fundamentally safe for the players, staff and spectators whilst still maintaining loads of fun and excitement. Health and safety will be closely monitored and managed on site and a policy of continual improvement will be adopted by all staff.

The product is designed to be compliant with the relevant safety standards outlined within the British and European Standard; BS EN 13814-1:2019 “Safety of amusement rides and amusement devices”.

Read more to hear about our safety features and any restrictions.

CUSTOMER RESTRICTIONS
Chaos Karts will have some restrictions on age, height, and pre-existing health conditions to ensure the safe operation of the karts;

Customers will not be allowed to participate if they;

• Are under 11 years old
• Are under 1.5m tall
• Are unable to safely operate the kart by comfortably reaching and using the pedals or steering wheel
• Have any other mobility issues that may impact the point above
• Are pregnant
• Suffer from any severe form of Sound & Light sensitivity (Epilepsy, / Hyperacusis)
• Have any pre-existing conditions with back, neck, arms or legs

These restrictions are clearly displayed at time of booking on the website and enforced by operating staff on site. A waiver will be signed by all customers before participation.

KART VEHICLE DESIGN
The karts are provided by Biz-Karts UK – An established UK based go-karting manufacturer. All of their products are compliant with BS EN 16230-1:2013+A1:2014 “Leisure karts. Safety requirements and test methods for karts” and also the Machinery Directive. The vehicles are designed to be mechanically safe at speeds far in excess of what will be possible in the Chaos Karts application.

The modifications to the standard kart that have been implemented for Chaos Karts are either aesthetic (different body panels and LED lighting) or provide increased safety for the driver (reduced top speed, headrest, seatbelt sensor)

PHYSICAL SAFETY FEATURES
Headrest

• A headrest has been added to support and minimise head movement during gameplay.

Seatbelt

• A seatbelt sensor is connected to the game engine. The session cannot start unless all active karts have their seatbelts engaged. Should the system detect that a seatbelt is removed during play all the karts are speed limited to zero, effectively stopped.

Safety Barrier

• Industry standard track barriers will be installed around the perimeter of the arena. These will provide additional impact reduction for any karts that attempt to drive off the track, and will inhibit vehicles colliding with the structure or spectators.

SYSTEM CONTROL ARCHITECTURE
The electric motors on each kart are controlled by an on-board control unit. This unit allows the karts to move forward, backwards and can impose maximum achievable speed limits for the vehicle. Without this the motors cannot be engaged. This system is a standard control system developed by the Karting Industry. Using a remote-control device track operators can manually limit the speed of individual karts if they notice poor driving behaviour or deteriorating driving conditions.

Our product uses this on-board control unit to limit the maximum speed that each kart can achieve in various scenarios. The speed available to each kart is controlled by the Unity games engine software. This software is aware of the position of each kart within the arena and also its current speed and direction of travel. Algorithms have been created to predict potential collisions and impose speed restrictions if necessary.

SPEED LIMITING INTERVENTIONS
The product has been designed to provide multiple levels of intervention to minimise collisions and reduce impact speed.

Manual intervention

• If driver behaving recklessly or unable to control vehicle the operator can limit the speed of an individual kart and send a warning message that appears in their dashboard display. Should the poor driving continue the operator has the ability to stop the game and request customers to leave.

Software intervention

The Unity games engine software will implement reduced maximum speeds on specific karts if;

• Vehicles are detected to be on a collision course
• A vehicle is stopped on the track
• A vehicle is facing the wrong way on the track
• The vehicle is no longer on the track
• The vehicle is heading towards the crash barrier
• Any kind of system failure; for example karts lose communications with server, or karts can no longer be tracked by location system. In this instance all karts will be speed limited.
• Seatbelt sensor – if a driver removes their seatbelt all karts are stopped