Control Engineering

Paul Grayson

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone
December 24, 2007

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone.


WHAT EVERY ARMY TRUCK DRIVER WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS
Here is a picture of an air ride truck seat.  It has been certified for use in on road trucks and is very similar to the off road version.  This is what that we are hoping to put in our technology demonstration truck, AGV WENDY DARLING, for the cross country publicity tour and photo ops.  Seats like this are for when you have people in the cab of a driverless truck.  An air ride seat tries to makes up for the rough ride that big trucks have.   This type of seat runs anywhere from $2,000 to $700 depending on the brand and we need to find two of them for our truck (this is the same price range as living room recliners).  Air ride seats operate on the principle of a tuned-spring-mass-system.  The adjustments are to de-tune the driver from the shock, vibration, and bounce of the truck as it goes down the road or across rough ground.  This same approach can be applied to protecting delicate electronics on board.

HOW IT WORKS
An adjustable air spring, charged from the trucks 90 psi air supply, acts against the levers that support the seat and a pair of dampers - much like shock absorbers.  The seat can travel up or down in an effort to keep the driver stationary as the truck bounces around.  The ride is a matter of fine tuning the air pressure in the cylinder to achieve the quality of ride that the driver wants.  Vertical travel is from six to nine inches, so seats come with a warning to make sure you have adequate head clearance. Ideally the seat is adjusted so the driver floats somewhere in the middle of the seats range of travel, ready for any sudden movement the truck might make.

USING IT
The warranty of one brand of seats is 10 years or 1 million miles, which ever come first.  At 55 mph that would be 18,181 hours of driving.  In a 30 year career, a driver would wear out three seats mechanisms.  The air ride  floating seat is meant to protect the driver from injury caused the the constant compressive battering the spine takes in an ordinary seat. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS
To the US armed forces truck drivers everywhere - Thank You for keeping us safe and trying to bring peace to the world.

2007 DARPA URBAN CHALLENGE
There are some great DARPA driverless vehicle videos at:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=darpa+urban&sitesearch=  
 

Photo by AIM Team members Linda and Tom Graham.

The lettering on the blue box it says: " Autonomous Vehicle System http://www.graymatterinc.com ".   Wow, it is amazing to see that it all fits in one little blue box!  Every car, bus, and truck should have one!

Posted by Paul Grayson on December 24, 2007 | Comments (0)