Life Preserver Automatic Inflation Device

To address the Navy’s need for an automatically inflating life preserver unit (LPU) for naval aircrew who have egressed from downed rotary-wing and non-ejection-seat aircraft, Intellisense Systems, Inc. (Intellisense) proposes to develop a new Life Preserver Automatic Inflation Device (LIFEAID) based on ruggedized capacitance submersion and pressure sensors paired with a new sonar transducer system. Specifically, the LIFEAID system leverages prior Intellisense technology, capacitive submersion and pressure sensors, and sonar proximity transducers. It will be integrated with existing Navy LPUs to enable the system to meet all Navy requirements and achieve redundant automatic LPU inflation only when the user is both submerged and outside of the aircraft, whether they are conscious or incapacitated. In Phase I, Intellisense will demonstrate the feasibility of LIFEAID by developing and demonstrating the feasibility of new and innovative solutions that have the potential for auto-activation for downed aircrew who are egressing an aircraft or who are on the outside of the aircraft and incapacitated. A range of downed aircrew scenarios will be analyzed to determine when autoactivation of a LPU is or is not appropriate, and the risks associated with autoactivation for the range of scenarios will be addressed. These trade-offs will be realized in the proposed solution. The risks to the wearer of fully inflating a LPU in a submerged aircraft will be addressed, mitigated, and reported on as a part of Phase I. The Phase I effort will include prototype plans to be developed under Phase II. In Phase II, Intellisense plans to further develop and produce a prototype naval aircrew LPU inflation device and perform laboratory and human validation testing to evaluate performance in mission-representative scenarios. Intellisense will develop life-cycle costs and supportability estimates.