Turret deployment system and method for a fire fighting vehicle

A fire fighting vehicle comprising:

• (A) a chassis and a vehicle body mounted on the chassis, the chassis and vehicle body in combination including an operator compartment capable of receiving a human operator, the operator compartment including steering and throttle controls for receiving operator inputs to control movement of the fire fighting vehicle along a road;
• (B) a turret including
• (1) an adjustable mount assembly, the adjustable mount assembly being mounted to the chassis and vehicle body combination, and the mount assembly including a fire-extinguishing agent delivery system capable of transporting a fire-extinguishing agent through the mount assembly;
• (2) a turret nozzle, the turret nozzle being mounted to the adjustable mount assembly, and the turret nozzle being capable of receiving the fire-extinguishing agent from the mount assembly;
• and
• (C) a turret control system, the turret control system including a plurality of actuators capable of adjusting the mount assembly to permit the position and orientation of the turret nozzle to be adjusted, the turret control system further including a turret controller coupled to the plurality of actuators, the turret controller storing position information pertaining to a desired position of the turret;
• and the turret controller being programmed to control movement of the turret using the turret motion controller, the movement of the turret being controlled in accordance with the position information.

A fire fighting vehicle comprising:

• (A) a turret comprising
• (1) an adjustable mount assembly, the adjustable mount assembly being mounted to the chassis and vehicle body combination, and the mount assembly including a fire-extinguishing agent delivery system capable of transporting a fire-extinguishing agent through the mount assembly,
• (2) a turret nozzle, the turret nozzle being mounted to the adjustable mount assembly, and the turret nozzle being capable of receiving the fire-extinguishing agent from the mount assembly, and
• (B) a power distribution and control system, the power distribution and control system further including
• (1) a power source;
• (2) a power transmission link;
• (3) a plurality of output devices, the plurality of output devices including a plurality of actuators capable of adjusting the mount assembly to adjust the position and orientation of the turret nozzle,
• (4) a plurality of input devices, the plurality of input devices including a plurality of position indicators capable of providing position information pertaining to the position and orientation of the nozzle, and the plurality of input devices further including an input device associated with an operator interface,
• (5) a communication network, and
• (6) a plurality of microprocessor-based interface modules, the plurality of interface modules being coupled to the power source by way of the power transmission link, the plurality of interface modules being interconnected to each other by way of the communication network, and the plurality of interface modules being coupled to the plurality of input devices and to the plurality of output devices by way of respective dedicated communication links, and the plurality of interface modules including one or more interface modules that are coupled to the plurality of position sensors, the plurality of actuators, and the input device associated with an operator interface;
• and
• wherein the plurality of interface modules, the plurality of input devices, and the plurality of output devices are distributed throughout the fire fighting vehicle;
• and
• wherein each respective interface module is locally disposed with respect to the respective input and output devices to which the respective interface module is coupled so as to permit distributed data collection from the plurality of input devices and distributed power distribution to the plurality of output devices;
• wherein the one or more interface modules is programmed to store position information pertaining to a desired position of the turret, and to control movement of the turret in accordance with the position information.