System for automatically deploying a smoke curtain and associated systems and methods

A method for deploying a barrier system for blocking transmission of smoke through a passageway, the method comprising:

• detecting a deployment condition to trigger deployment of a curtain, wherein the curtain is movable between a retracted state and a deployed state;
• and
• controlling an H-bridge circuit having an inductor of a motor operatively coupled to the curtain to control a speed of the curtain during a decent in response to being pulled toward the deployed state by gravity, wherein controlling the H-bridge circuit comprises:
• for a first portion of a modulation period, setting the H-bridge circuit in a fast-decay mode;
• and
• for a second portion of the modulation period, setting the H-bridge circuit in a slow decay mode.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations for operating a deployable barrier system to deploy a smoke curtain, the operations comprising:

• detecting a deployment condition to trigger deployment of the smoke curtain, wherein the smoke curtain is movable between a retracted state and a deployed state;
• and
• controlling a deploying circuit having an inductor of a motor, wherein the motor is operatively coupled to the smoke curtain to control a speed of the smoke curtain during a decent toward the deployed state, wherein controlling the deploying circuit comprises, for each individual modulation period during the decent toward the deployed state:
• for a first portion of the individual modulation period, setting the deploying circuit in a fast-decay mode;
• and
• for a second portion of the individual modulation period, setting the deploying circuit in a slow decay mode.