Child Safety Seat Anchor Assembly with Electrical Circuit
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Vehicle operators lack assurance that child safety seats are properly attached to lower anchors, and front seats can inadvertently interfere with child safety seats, disrupting their optimal positioning.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a lower anchor assembly with a normally open switch and electrical circuit that closes when a child safety seat is correctly attached, providing a notification to the operator and preventing the front seat from moving too close to the rear-facing child safety seat or interfering with a front-facing child safety seat occupant.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a child safety seat is attached to lower anchors without an indication system, then the attachment structure remains simple, but the operator cannot be certain that the child safety seat has been properly attached
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism through an indication system that provides real-time information to the operator about the attachment status of the child safety seat. The system uses switches and electrical circuits to detect whether the seat is properly attached and communicates this status to the operator, resolving the contradiction by adding reliability through feedback while managing complexity through automated detection rather than manual verification.
Solution Approach 2:
The attachment system performs self-verification through automated detection mechanisms. The switches and sensors automatically detect the presence and proper attachment of the child safety seat without requiring operator intervention or manual checking, thereby improving reliability while minimizing the complexity of operator actions required.
2Ease of operation
If the front seat can move freely, then the ease of operation is improved, but the front seat may interfere with the child safety seat or child occupant
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies preliminary anti-action by detecting the presence of a properly attached child safety seat and proactively preventing the front seat from moving into a position that would cause interference. The indication system and control mechanism work together to restrict front seat movement before interference can occur, thereby eliminating the harmful effect while preserving ease of operation through automated control.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from the attachment detection switches to control front seat movement. When a child safety seat is detected, the system communicates this status and can prevent or alert about front seat adjustments that would cause interference, resolving the contradiction by using feedback to coordinate seat movements and prevent harmful interactions.
Data Source
AI summary
The problem of a front seat occupant moving the front seatback so far so as to interfere with the proper positioning of a rear-facing child safety seat or to touch a child's legs while sitting in a front-facing child safety seat is solved by transforming the lower anchor into a segment of an electrical circuit with a normally open switch that is forced to the closed position when a child safety seat attachment system has attached to the lower anchor and the vehicle prevents the front seat from moving beyond a present distance toward the rear seat. The closing of the electrical circuit can be used to supply an input signal to a controller in the vehicle programmed to notify the operator that a child safety seat has been attached to prevent the front seat from moving beyond a fixed distance from the rear seat.