Smart Tactile Warning Panels With Subsurface IoT Enclosures
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Solution Overview
Problem
The deployment of tactile warning panels in urban environments is hindered by high costs and the need for additional functionality to enhance safety and mobility, particularly for visually impaired individuals, while existing solutions are not adequately secure or scalable for smart city technologies.
Innovation Solution
A tactile warning panel apparatus (TWPA) that integrates subsurface enclosures and load-bearing panels to securely and ubiquitously place smart city technologies, including connectivity devices, sensors, and energy sources, while maintaining ADA compliance and providing enhanced tactile and visual cues for navigation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional tactile warning panels are deployed, then safety for visually impaired individuals is improved, but deployment cost and complexity increase due to lack of integrated functionality
Solution Approach 1:
The tactile warning panel is transformed into a multi-functional platform by integrating subsurface enclosures that can house various smart city technologies including connectivity devices, sensors, and energy sources. The panel serves both its traditional safety function and acts as a foundation for additional functionalities such as wireless communication, environmental monitoring, and energy storage, thereby reducing overall system complexity and deployment costs.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention combines the tactile warning panel with subsurface enclosures and multiple technological components into a single integrated apparatus. The load-bearing panel, subsurface enclosure, and various smart city technologies are merged into one unified structure that can be deployed as a complete system rather than separate components.
2Adaptability or versatility
If additional functionality is integrated into tactile warning panels, then smart city capabilities are enhanced, but security and scalability are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The design employs a nested structure where subsurface enclosures are placed beneath the load-bearing tactile warning panel. This nesting approach allows multiple technological components to be housed within the subsurface enclosures while the panel itself remains accessible and functional. The nested configuration provides security by protecting sensitive components within the enclosed subsurface space while maintaining scalability through modular design.
3Adaptability or versatility
If subsurface enclosures are integrated, then space for smart city technologies is created, but manufacturing and installation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system is divided into distinct segments: the load-bearing tactile warning panel and the subsurface enclosures. This segmentation allows each component to be manufactured and prepared separately, then installed together as an integrated system. The panel can be produced using standard manufacturing processes while the subsurface enclosures can be prepared independently, facilitating easier manufacturing and installation.
Data Source
AI summary
Multipurpose tactile warning panels for use in pedestrian walkways, and in particular tactile warning panels that are designed and built with multifunction/multipurpose capabilities that serve the visually impaired and enable the deployment of smart city technology by integrating tactile warning systems and subsurface enclosures that can withstand pressures of five (5) tons up to and exceeding sixty (60) tons and incorporate small cells, beacons, sensors, Fog Computing, electric energy generation, rechargeable power supplies, wireless M2M communication and a plethora of other smart city technologies.