Box office figures have confirmed that the most recent James Bond film 'Casino Royale' has been one of the most successful in this ever-popular franchise. Although the film steers clear of some of the more traditional gadgets that ‘Q’ can muster up; it still has a breathtaking array of special effects scenes. One of the biggest, the sinking of a Venetian building, saw Moog and SICK (UK) Ltd., two of the country's leading automation providers, work in harmony to ensure smooth and safe operation of a huge rig that had to sink one of three motion bases (the largest weighing 80.000Kg) into the large water tanks at Pinewood Studios just outside London.

The equipment designed to control the rig centred on an M3000 system, which for this application can be split into the hardware – Moog Servo Controller (MSC); and software – Moog Axis Control Software (MACS). It was used to control six digital Moog Axis Control Valves (ACV), which, in turn operated six hydraulic actuators. Feedback of the actuator position was achieved using a number of SICK|Stegmann BTF wire-driven encoders. The digital nature of all of the hardware was a major selling point according to Dan Stanton at EMP Designs. "With respect to the hydraulic control, we have worked with other companies in the past, but we wanted to do something special this time. Moog was the only company that could supply what we wanted – a hydraulic system based on digital valve technology. The accurate encoder technology from SICK completed the package, giving us a completely digital control infrastructure.