Blanket-based structures
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional play structures, especially collapsible ones, lack structural integrity, leading to instability and potential injury during play, and they often require significant storage space, limiting their portability and versatility.
Innovation Solution
The system includes enclosure elements with attachment mechanisms, detachable corner straps, and weights to create and maintain stable blanket-based structures, anchoring them to environmental objects for enhanced rigidity and support, allowing for various configurations and improved portability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If play structures are made collapsible to reduce storage space, then storage efficiency is improved, but structural integrity deteriorates leading to instability and potential injury
Solution Approach 1:
The play structure is divided into multiple modular panels that can be independently connected and disconnected. Each panel maintains its structural integrity while the overall structure can be assembled or disassembled by connecting panels through attachment mechanisms at corners and edges, resolving the contradiction between collapsibility and structural strength
Solution Approach 2:
The structure employs dynamic attachment mechanisms that allow panels to be easily connected and disconnected during play setup and storage. These mechanisms provide rigid connections when assembled but allow for quick disassembly, enabling the structure to transition between stable play configuration and compact storage state without compromising safety
2Strength
If play structures are made rigid to improve structural integrity, then stability is improved, but storage space requirement increases
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the structure into separate rigid panels that maintain their structural integrity independently, the design allows each component to be strong and stable when assembled, while the segmented nature enables compact stacking and storage when disassembled, effectively resolving the volume-strength contradiction
3Ease of operation
If play structures are configured to assemble into pre-determined shapes to simplify assembly, then ease of operation is improved, but adaptability deteriorates limiting configuration diversity
Solution Approach 1:
The attachment mechanisms are designed with universal compatibility across all panel types and connection points. Standardized connectors can attach to multiple locations (corners, mid-edges) and work with various panel configurations, enabling the same simple assembly process to create diverse structures such as forts, houses, tunnels, and open-play areas, thus achieving both ease of operation and adaptability
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and kits for assembling and/or modifying a blanket-based structure are disclosed. An exemplary system includes an enclosure element having one or more attachment mechanisms fixedly attached to the enclosure element and configured to detachably associate with one or more environmental structures. The exemplary system additionally includes a plurality of connection features, a plurality of complementary connection, and a plurality of eyelets disposed along the perimeter of the enclosure element. The exemplary system additionally includes one or more weights selectively attachable to the enclosure element at one or more of: the attachment mechanisms, the plurality of connection features, the plurality of complementary connection features, the plurality of eyelets, or combinations thereof.