Deployable Airbag Protective Gear for Fall Impact
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional protective gears for elderly individuals or delicate devices fail to provide adequate cushioning against impacts due to limited mobility constraints and insufficient cushioning thickness, leading to potential severe injuries from falls.
Innovation Solution
A protective gear system comprising a housing with an airbag and a detector that deploys the airbag upon detecting excessive motion, utilizing a gas generator to inflate and expand the airbag rapidly, providing enhanced cushioning against impacts such as falling, with customizable designs for human body parts or devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the internal cushion layer is made thick to provide sufficient cushioning, then the protection effect is improved, but the user's mobility is severely limited
Solution Approach 1:
The protective gear transitions from a static thick cushion structure to a dynamic deployable airbag structure. The airbag remains compact during normal activities, allowing free movement, and deploys rapidly when impact is detected through the acceleration sensor and controller, providing thick cushioning only when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The airbag is nested within the housing structure, allowing it to be stored in a compact form factor that does not interfere with mobility. When deployed, the airbag expands outward from its nested position to provide the necessary cushioning thickness.
2Ease of operation
If the internal cushion layer is made thin to maintain mobility, then ease of operation is improved, but the cushioning capability becomes insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses a gas generator to rapidly inflate the airbag with gas, creating a thick cushioning layer in milliseconds. This pneumatic mechanism allows the protective gear to provide sufficient cushioning thickness without requiring a permanently thick structure, thus maintaining mobility.
Solution Approach 2:
The airbag and gas generator are pre-positioned within the housing, ready for rapid deployment. When impact is detected, the gas generator immediately activates to inflate the airbag, providing cushioning protection before the impact occurs.
3Ease of operation
If conventional protective gear is designed with limited thickness to avoid mobility constraints, then ease of operation is improved, but the protection against severe injuries is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The protective gear uses a dynamic deployment system that activates only during impact events. The acceleration sensor detects abnormal motion patterns, and the controller triggers the gas generator to inflate the airbag, providing enhanced protection against impact injuries while maintaining mobility during normal activities.
Solution Approach 2:
The gas generator rapidly produces gas to inflate the airbag, creating a thick cushioning barrier that absorbs impact energy. This pneumatic cushioning mechanism provides superior protection against severe injuries compared to conventional foam or elastic materials of the same size.
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
The system offers improved protection by rapidly deploying an airbag that can fully expand within 200 ms, providing a larger cushioning effect than traditional gear, while maintaining mobility and ease of use, and can be configured for various applications including human body parts and devices.
Implementation Method 1
a gas generator disposed in the housing and configured to produce gas to inflate and deploy the airbag out of the housing
Implementation Method 2
The detector of the protective gear can comprise an acceleration sensor, which can detect acceleration of the object for indicating the motion of the object
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure provides a protective gear and system for cushioning an object against falling. The protective gear includes a housing conforming to a portion of the object, an airbag disposed in the housing, a detector configured to detect a motion of the object; and a controller configured to generate an actuating signal to deploy the airbag if the motion is over a threshold. The protection system includes a primary protective gear and at least one secondary protective gear.