Adaptive Scaffold Protrusions for Personal Mobility Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Personal mobility devices, such as electric kickboards and bicycles, pose safety risks due to unstable user posture during operation, especially when navigating slopes or turns, and users are distracted by needing to look away from their path to access device information.
Innovation Solution
Integration of sensors and protruding elements with actuators on the scaffold that detect user load and event types, allowing the controller to adjust the scaffold's surface by raising specific protruding elements to maintain user stability and alert the user to events without requiring forward gaze.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If the user looks at the display to check device state, then information can be viewed, but the user's attention is diverted from the path ahead increasing distraction risk
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses protruding elements as intermediaries between the control system and the user. These elements physically convey device state information by rising or falling in response to sensor inputs, allowing users to perceive information through tactile feedback rather than visual display, thus eliminating the need to look away from the path ahead.
2Device complexity
If the scaffold surface remains flat, then the structure is simple, but the user's posture becomes unstable when rotating or driving on slopes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the static flat scaffold surface into a dynamic adaptive surface by incorporating protruding elements that can rise and fall independently. This allows the scaffold to automatically adjust its surface profile in response to user position and motion, providing active stabilization during rotation or slope driving without requiring complex overall structural changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local adjustments to the scaffold surface through individually controllable protruding elements. Each element can be controlled independently to provide localized support or stabilization at specific positions under the user's body, allowing precise postural correction without altering the entire scaffold structure.
3Reliability
If protruding elements are added to maintain stability and convey information, then safety and convenience are improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent designs the protruding elements to serve multiple functions simultaneously: they act as both structural support elements for stability and as tactile display elements for conveying device state information. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate components, thereby limiting the increase in overall device complexity while achieving improved safety and user convenience.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enhances user safety by maintaining stable posture and conveying event information without diverting attention from the path, improving overall operational safety and convenience.
Implementation Method 1
a plurality of protruding elements, each of which includes an actuator and a load sensor
Implementation Method 2
each of which includes an actuator and a load sensor, protruding from the scaffold and configured of descending according to a load applied thereto or rising according to an output of the actuator
Data Source
AI summary
A personal mobility may include a sensor configured to detect an event; a plurality of protruding elements, each of which includes an actuator and a load sensor, protruding from the scaffold and configured of descending according to a load applied thereto or rising according to an output of the actuator; and a controller connected to the sensor and the plurality of protruding elements and configured to determine a position of the sole of the user based on an output of the protruding element descending according to the load of the user among the plurality of protruding elements when the user boards on the scaffold, determine the type of the event based on the output of the sensor and control to raise at least one protruding element among the protruding elements located below the sole based on the type of the event.