Killer whale shows never fail to impress audiences, but the whale in this case isn't real or in the water.  Rather, it is a convincing illusion.  The 16' whale is a six motion robot.  The mechanical design was created using motion studies based on video footage provided by Frank E. Fish of Westchester University in Pennsylvania.

The high performance motion control system links to the computer graphics using SMPTE Time code.  You see samples of the graphics in the whales swimming behind the robotic whale in the tom left picture as well as the internal organs of the whale in the middle picture.

Traditional hydraulics were out of the question on this project.  A hydraulic power unit would have been required to be housed in a separate air-conditioned, sound-proof room that contained refrigerated oil coolers.  The replacement?  Brushless servomotor-powered linear actuators.  Five of the three-phase actuators move the tail and one controls the mouth.  The actuators eliminated support equipment and most importantly...the noise.