Avenergy Playground

Children discover hydrogen as the fuel of the future

For the three-year special exhibition on hydrogen mobility at the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne, we developed an interactive learning game that conveys complex relationships in a playful and easy-to-understand way.

The central question was how hydrogen as a climate-friendly energy carrier works. In the game, the children produced the hydrogen themselves: they playfully split water molecules into their components, assembled H₂ from them, and then refueled various vehicles.

In this way, the Avenergy Playground combines gamification, knowledge transfer, and interactive technology into an experience that brings children closer to the topics of hydrogen, sustainable mobility, and the energy of the future in an intuitive and entertaining way.

Simple game principle conveys complex technology

Sustainably produced electricity from hydro, solar, or wind energy can be used to split water (H₂O) into hydrogen (H₂) and oxygen (O₂) by means of electrolysis. The hydrogen produced can then be used as an energy carrier for various forms of mobility.

We reduced these complex technical relationships to an intuitive and entertaining game mechanic. Instead of explaining theory, the children experience the process themselves: molecules are split, hydrogen is assembled, and vehicles are supplied with it.

This makes topics such as hydrogen technology, renewable energies, and sustainable mobility easy to understand through play and easier to remember through active interaction.

Robust system for long-term museum use

Interactive applications in museums must above all function reliably, durably, and with minimal maintenance. For the stomping mechanism, we therefore developed precise foot tracking using infrared cameras and were able to dispense entirely with failure-prone mechanical elements.

The system was consistently designed for autonomous operation: it started automatically in the morning and switched independently from standby to active mode as soon as a child entered the playing field.

The game mechanics also adapted dynamically to the number of visitors. The number of molecules to be stomped was automatically scaled based on the number of children on the playing field. This kept the interactive museum experience balanced and entertaining for both individual players and larger groups.