Aircraft Seat Auto-Adjustment Using Passenger Size Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Passengers, especially children, often struggle to adjust aircraft seats properly for comfort and safety due to unfamiliarity with the seat controls, leading to suboptimal seating configurations.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for automatically adjusting seat settings using sensors to detect passenger size and shape, determining optimal positions, and actuating seat components to achieve comfort and safety based on these measurements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If manual seat adjustment controls are provided, then seat adjustability is achieved, but ease of operation deteriorates for passengers unfamiliar with the controls
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically detects passenger characteristics using sensors and autonomously adjusts seat parameters without requiring manual passenger input. The processor analyzes sensor data to determine optimal seat configurations and actuates seat components accordingly, enabling the seat to serve itself based on passenger size and shape detection.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs seat adjustment actions before the passenger needs to manually operate the controls. By detecting passenger characteristics upon approach or seating, the system proactively configures the seat to optimal settings in advance, eliminating the need for the passenger to learn or operate complex adjustment mechanisms.
2Ease of operation
If automatic sensor-based adjustment is implemented, then ease of operation improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor system serves multiple functions: detecting passenger presence, determining passenger size and shape characteristics, and triggering appropriate seat adjustment modes. This multi-functionality consolidates what could be separate systems into a unified approach, managing complexity through functional integration rather than proliferation of dedicated components.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adjusts seat parameters (position, angle, support levels) based on detected passenger characteristics. By using continuous sensor data to dynamically modify multiple seat parameters simultaneously, the system achieves complex adjustment outcomes through coordinated parameter changes rather than requiring equally complex mechanical adjustment mechanisms.
3Measurement precision
If comprehensive sensor data collection is performed, then measurement precision improves, but loss of time increases due to data processing
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs sensor data collection and processing in advance, before the passenger requires seat adjustment. By detecting passenger characteristics as soon as the passenger approaches or sits down, the system completes all necessary measurements and calculations proactively, so that seat adjustment can begin immediately without delays during the passenger's seating process.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors sensor data and adjusts seat parameters in real-time based on detected passenger characteristics. This feedback mechanism allows the system to refine measurements and make incremental adjustments, reducing the need for extensive initial data processing while maintaining high measurement precision through iterative optimization.
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems and methods for automatically adjusting settings and positions of fully adjustable seats are disclosed herein. The method including receiving, by a processor (320), data from at least one sensor (124) that is operatively coupled to the processor, the data including a representation of a size and a shape of a passenger, identifying, by the processor, at least one of the size or the shape of the passenger based on the data, determining, by the processor, at least one determined seat position for the adjustable seat (102) based at least in part on one of the size or the shape of the passenger, and sending, by the processor, instructions to the adjustable seat to adjust the adjustable seat to a first determined seat position.