ACS Active Crashworhty Seating System

The overall goal of this Army SBIR program is to develop innovative solutions for mitigation of high-frequency rotor induced whole body vibration of seated occupants in helicopters while providing failsafe adaptive crash safety that surpasses the limited protection provided by the current seat-mounted passive shock absorbers. To meet ARMY's immediate needs, in this SBIR program Materials Technologies Corporation is developing ACS - Active Crashworthy Seating system, that embodies two innovative solutions in a unified hybrid actuation package: i) high frequency active vibration isolation, and ii) a failsafe and adaptive shock absorption. The analysis so far during the Phase I program has shown that it is perfectly feasible to maintain safe deceleration rates for the seated occupant during a crash event and a jet smooth- nearly vibration free ride during the routine flights using our hybrid ACS actuation system. To further develop the technology and implement into an actual rotorcraft seat during the Phase II program MTC has teamed up with two industry leaders, Bell Helicopter and BAE Systems. In Phase II this MTC team will take the ACS technology to TRL of 6~7 by performing full scale crash and harmonic vibration tests.