SEATING

CHILD’S SEAT INTEGRATION

Conceptual Design

The sponsor donated a child’s car seat to the project.  One specification was multiple levels of decline for children with various head-support needs.  The seat donated had three-possible decline positions.  However, the third station was considered too low an angle to permit proper vision while steering the vehicle.  Three options were considered to solve this problem.  The first option used only the first two child-seat positions, while the next two involved removing the included apparatus in favor of a new system with smaller decline increments.  The first of these involved a notched vertical plate attached to the back of the seat on a hinge that permitted some angular displacement and pin-jointing the front.  The second involved pin-jointing the bottom rear of the seat, and drilling three holes on a radius through the front rear of the seat at appropriate angular intervals.

The criteria used to choose among these three options included stability, user friendliness, and ease of implementation.  Cost was not a factor in this case, as any materials necessary were procured from the Learning Factory free of charge.  Stability was the greatest concern, as it directly affected the safety of the child.  Included in this was the seat placement relative to the center of mass of the car.  The center of mass of the child needed to be at least above, if not in front of, the rear axle to prevent backward tipping while traveling up ramps.  Finally, ease of implementation was considered important because it relates to the amount of time required for assembly.  See the decision matrix below.  As shown, the third option was the best. 

FIGURE 1: Seating Integration Matrix

Detailed Design

A sketch of this seating system and its integration into the vehicle is shown below (see Figure 2, 3, 4). 

Figure 2: Front View Seating                  Figure 3: Side View Seating

Figure 4: Seating inside car

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