Hydraulic Damper - Iteration II

We took a major shift in our design after some thorough patent searching. This design incorporates solenoids and ferrofluid into our damper to integrate a dynamic system instead of one adjustment to the passengers weight!

Ferrofluid

Its a relatively new technology developed by NASA to help with fuel consumption when gravity isn't there to compress it. Its exactly what the name says: nano iron particles suspended in a unique fluid that keeps the particles from separating and coagulating.

Solenoids

They are basically electromagnets that can be turned on and off. The idea is that when a voltage is applied, the solenoid creates a field that flows through the center of the coil and around (based on the right hand rule). Our idea is that when the damper is activated, the Arduino will send a voltage through the coils and an electromagnetic field will occur opposing the direction of the piston.

In this design, you can see there are an increasing number of coils as the piston approaches the end. We though of this as like steps of increasing height making it harder to pass through each set of coils. This would in theory reduce the momentum of the passenger at a slower rate. By having the coils on the outside, we are utilizing the most uniform part of the magnetic field, thus having more control over the fluid. When the damper is not engaged, there will still be a slight current at all times keeping the fluid where it should be and reducing the time for the magnetic field to develop.

We believe moving to a dynamic system is the most important component because now the program can react to a unique event. Instead of weighing the passenger, the damper will have sensors to measure how much force it feels instantaneously and can adjust if it is slowing down the passenger to slowly or quickly.