Vehicle Protection Mechanisms

This invention implements mechanisms to manage risks of vehicles overturning including means of outright avoiding obstacles, correcting for tilts, and mitigating consequences from rolls. Engineered guards passively protect from a wide variety of hazards. If the vehicle tilts, angled guards provide stabilization. If the vehicle does roll, certain guard parameters minimize impact and encourage resulting right-side up orientation. Vehicles are made inherently safer in a fundamental way and deployment/mission duration can be extended.

Background:
Overturning is an inherent risk of vehicles, especially in difficult terrain. Operationally, this is all-the-more concerning for remotely-operated or automated vehicles far from easy correction, such as in exploratory space missions or reconnaissance in remote areas or in mining and subterranean environments.

Applications:

• Space exploration rovers
• Military reconnaissance
• Automobiles
• Explosive ordinance disposal
• Robots and automated processes
• Mining
• Subterranean environments

Advantages:

• Failsafe passive engineering, requiring less need for monitoring or maintenance
• Self-correcting mechanisms that are independent from type of hazard encountered
• Simple and easily adaptable design
• Passive simplicity reduces system complexity and sensitivity to malfunction
• Mission or deployment duration extension

Status: issued U.S. patent #11,110,878