Vehicle safety guard system with height adjustment
AssigneePublic Transportation Safety Int'l Corp.
InventorMark B. Barron
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A safety guard attached to and extending down from a body portion of a vehicle can pivot against a biasing force relative to the body portion if the safety guard engages an animate or inanimate object. In addition, the safety guard is mounted for vertical movement relative to the vehicle body and a support surface for the vehicle, with the vertical movement being selectively performed by an operator of the vehicle or automatically based on sensor inputs used to assess road and/or vehicle operating conditions.
Claims20
A vehicle comprising:
- a body having a front end portion and a side panel portion;
- a pair of front steerable wheels spaced in a transverse direction of the body of the vehicle;
- at least one pair of transversely spaced rear wheels which are longitudinally spaced from the front steerable wheels;
- a door provided along the at least one side panel;
- a safety guard extending downward from the body along one of the front end portion and the side panel portion for engaging animate and inanimate objects in order to prevent the objects from going under the vehicle, said safety guard being both pivotally attached to and separately, vertically shiftable relative to the body;
- and
- a system for shifting the safety guard relative to the body, said system including a plurality of sensors and a controller for automatically shifting the safety guard relative to the body based on one or more signals received from the plurality of sensors.
The vehicle according to 1, wherein the plurality of sensors employs at least one of optical, laser, sonar and radar sensors.
A method of a controlling a safety guard extending downward from one of a front end portion and a side panel portion of a body of a vehicle having a pair of front steerable wheels spaced in a transverse direction of the body of the vehicle, at least one pair of transversely spaced rear wheels longitudinally spaced from the front steerable wheels, and a door provided along the at least one side panel, said method comprising automatically shifting the safety guard relative to the body based on signals received from one or more of a plurality of sensors configured to sense vehicle operating conditions, said method including:
- pivoting the safety guard in connection with engaging an animate or inanimate object in order to prevent the object from going under the vehicle;
- and
- vertically shifting the safety guard, separate from the pivoting, relative to the body to alter a distance between the safety guard and a supporting surface for the vehicle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.