Systems for active coupling of airbags

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10165806-B2
Application number	US-201715424004-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 3, 2017
Priority date	Oct 30, 2014
Publication date	Jan 1, 2019
Grant date	Jan 1, 2019

Abstract

An airbag deployment system includes a helmet, a torso protection assembly, and an airbag assembly. The airbag assembly is coupled to one of the helmet and the torso protection assembly and includes an airbag, an inflation device configured to inflate the airbag, and a first coupling device. The first coupling device is configured to couple to a second coupling device provided on the other of the helmet and the torso protection assembly upon inflation of the airbag. The coupling resists relative movement between the helmet and the torso protection assembly.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An airbag deployment system, comprising:
a torso protection assembly; and
an airbag assembly coupled to the torso protection assembly, the airbag assembly including:
an airbag;
an inflation device configured to inflate the airbag from a deflated configuration to an inflated configuration; and
an airbag coupling device provided on the airbag, the airbag coupling device positioned to couple with a helmet coupling device provided on a helmet following inflation of the airbag from the deflated configuration into the inflated configuration such that the airbag resists relative movement between the helmet and the torso protection assembly.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the airbag coupling device includes at least one of an adhesive, a magnet, and a hook and loop fastener.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the airbag is configured to extend about posterior and side portions of a user's neck when inflated.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the airbag is configured to extend about an entire circumference of a user's neck when inflated.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the airbag coupling device is configured to couple to the helmet coupling device to couple the helmet to the torso protection assembly in relative positions upon inflation of the airbag based on the relative positions of the helmet and the torso protection assembly at a time of contact between the airbag coupling device and the helmet coupling device.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the inflation device is configured to inflate the airbag based on an impact experienced by at least one of the helmet and the torso protection assembly.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the inflation device is configured to inflate the airbag based on an impact parameter of an impact exceeding a predetermined threshold.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the impact parameter includes at least one of a force, a torque, and an acceleration.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the inflation device is configured to inflate the airbag based on an expected impact to at least one of the helmet and the torso protection assembly.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the inflation device is configured to control an inflation rate of the airbag based on an impact parameter.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the impact parameter includes at least one of an expected time until an impact, a speed of an impacting body, a size of an impacting body, and a distance between impacting bodies.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the airbag coupling device and the helmet coupling device cooperatively form a coupling joint configured to fail upon application of at least one of a predetermined force to the coupling joint and a predetermined torque to the coupling joint.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the airbag coupling device and the helmet coupling device cooperatively form a plurality of coupling joints, wherein each of the plurality of coupling joints is configured to fail upon application of a different predetermined force to the coupling joint.

14. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a processing circuit configured to control inflation of the airbag via the inflation device.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to control inflation of the airbag based on a user input.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the user input is an impact parameter threshold.

17. The system of claim 1 , wherein the helmet is a sports helmet and the torso protection assembly is a shoulder pad assembly.

18. The system of claim 1 , wherein the inflation device includes compressed gas storage configured to store compressed gas that facilitates inflating the airbag with the compressed gas.

19. The system of claim 1 , wherein the inflation device includes chemical storage configured to store chemicals that interact to produce gas to inflate the airbag.

20. An airbag deployment system, comprising:
an airbag assembly configured to couple to a torso protection assembly, the airbag assembly including:
an airbag;
an inflation device configured to inflate the airbag from a deflated configuration to an inflated configuration; and
an airbag coupling device provided on the airbag, the airbag coupling device positioned to couple with a helmet coupling device provided on a helmet following inflation of the airbag from the deflated configuration into the inflated configuration such that the airbag couples the torso protection assembly to the helmet.

21. The system of claim 20 , wherein the airbag is configured to extend about posterior and side portions of a user's neck when inflated.

22. The system of claim 20 , wherein the airbag is configured to extend about an entire circumference of a user's neck when inflated.

23. The system of claim 20 , wherein the airbag coupling device includes at least one of an adhesive, a magnet, and a hook and loop fastener.

24. The system of claim 20 , wherein the inflation device is configured to inflate the airbag based on an impact experienced by at least one of the helmet and the torso protection assembly.

25. The system of claim 20 , wherein the inflation device is configured to inflate the airbag based on an expected impact to at least one of the helmet and the torso protection assembly.

26. The system of claim 20 , wherein the inflation device is configured to control an inflation rate of the airbag based on an impact parameter.

27. The system of claim 26 , wherein the impact parameter includes at least one of an expected time until an impact, a speed of an impacting body, a size of an impacting body, and a distance between impacting bodies.

28. The system of claim 20 , wherein the inflation device includes compressed gas storage configured to store compressed gas that facilitates inflating the airbag with the compressed gas.

29. The system of claim 20 , wherein the inflation device includes chemical storage configured to store chemicals that interact to produce gas to inflate the airbag.

30. An airbag deployment system, comprising:
a torso protection assembly; and
an airbag coupled to the torso protection assembly, the airbag selectively inflatable from a deflated configuration to an inflated configuration;
wherein the airbag selectively deploys from the torso protection assembly toward a helmet to selectively couple the torso protection assembly to the helmet following inflation of the airbag from the deflated configuration into the inflated configuration.

31. The system of claim 30 , wherein the airbag is configured to extend about posterior and side portions of a user's neck when inflated.

32. The system of claim 30 , wherein the airbag is configured to extend about an entire circumference of a user's neck when inflated.

33. The system of claim 30 , further comprising an inflation device configured to inflate the airbag from the deflated configuration to the inflated configuration.

34. The system of claim 30 , wherein the airbag resists relative movement between the helmet and the torso protection assembly.

35. The system of claim 30 , further comprising a coupling device provided on the airbag, the coupling device positioned to interface with a corresponding coupling device provided on the helmet to coupl

Assignees

• Elwha Llc

Inventors

• Duncan William D
• Hyde Roderick A
• Urzhumov Yaroslav A

Classifications

• A63B2209/08

  magnetic · CPC title

• A63B2209/10

  with adhesive type surfaces, i.e. hook and loop-type fastener · CPC title

• A41D13/0512

  Neck or shoulders area · CPC title

• A63B2243/007

  American football · CPC title

• A63B2225/50

  Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry · CPC title