Rollover Support Retraction for Hatch Crew Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Protected vehicles, such as armored personnel carriers, often have confusing geometry, leading crew members to protrude from hatch openings, making them vulnerable to fatal injury during rollovers, as their upper body may be outside the vehicle, exposing them to crushing risks when the vehicle overturns.
Innovation Solution
A rollover protection system that includes a triggering element, a support element, and a coupling unit, which moves the support element from an extended state outside the vehicle to a retracted state inside the vehicle upon rollover, ensuring the crew member is protected by being fully inside during the rollover event.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the crew member protrudes from the hatch opening to drive over hatches, then the ease of operation is improved, but the safety of the crew member deteriorates due to crushing risk during rollover
Solution Approach 1:
The support element is positioned in advance to extend beyond the hatch opening, allowing the crew member to protrude safely during normal operation. Upon rollover detection, the support element automatically retracts to pull the crew member inside the vehicle, preventing crushing injuries. This preliminary positioning and automatic retraction mechanism resolves the contradiction by enabling safe protrusion when needed while automatically protecting during rollover events.
2Ease of operation
If the support element is extended outside the vehicle to allow crew member protrusion, then the ease of operation is improved, but the safety deteriorates when the vehicle rolls over
Solution Approach 1:
The support element transitions from a static extended position to a dynamic retracted position upon rollover detection. The coupling unit connects the trigger element to the support element, enabling automatic movement from extended to retracted state during rollover. This dynamic adaptation allows the system to provide ease of operation during normal use while automatically eliminating the crushing hazard during rollover events.
3Reliability
If the rollover protection system is added to protect crew members, then the safety is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The rollover protection system is divided into three functional segments: a trigger element that detects rollover, a coupling unit that transmits the triggering action, and a support element that provides crew member support and protection. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function efficiently while keeping the overall system relatively simple and manageable.
4Reliability
If the support element is moved from extended to retracted state during rollover, then the safety is improved, but the device complexity increases due to coupling mechanism
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling unit serves as an intermediary mechanism that connects the trigger element to the support element. It translates the triggering action (such as hatch cover movement or sensor signal) into the retraction motion of the support element. This intermediary component enables automatic protection while maintaining a relatively simple overall system architecture by clearly separating the detection, transmission, and execution functions.
Data Source
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AI summary
Rollover protection system (19A, 19B, 19C) for a protected vehicle (1), comprising a release element (42) for triggering the rollover protection system (19A, 19B, 19C), a support element (46) for carrying a crew member (29), and a coupling unit (50) that couples the release element (42) to the support element (46) in order to move the support element (46) from an extended state (Z100), in which the crew member (29) is partly inside and partly outside the protected vehicle (1), to a retracted state (Z200), in which the crew member (29) is completely inside the protected vehicle (1), during a rollover of the protected vehicle (1), so that the crew member (29) is protected during the rollover of the protected vehicle (1).