Gravicase

Project Overview

Have you ever dropped and damaged various expensive and delicate personal electronics, watching in slow motion as it rotated through the air before shattering upon the ground? Don't you wish that there was an inexpensive and efficient way to protect your property from breaking. We want to innovate the field of personal electronics protection with a cheap and reliable alternative to expensive phone/tablet/laptop cases with Gravicase. A case outfitted with a small, portable airbag system which deploys to protect your devices when it senses it is being dropped. With a CO2 powered airbag, and an Arduino powered accelerometer sensing the drop, our project will inflate into action while falling, protecting your personal electronics from absorbing the shock of a drop and protecting you from expensive repair fees or replacements.

Link to GraviCase Wiki: here

Team Members

• Matt Rocco
• Michael Morgan
• Andrew O'Sullivan (TA)

Objective

• To create a case / device that upon being dropped will deploy an airbag / parachute to help protect your valuable electronics from drop damage.
  • A special emphasis on protecting the screen of the phone as most conventional cases currently do not.
    • Having an airbag which "wraps around" towards the front of the screen or creates a "pocket" to shield it from impact.
  • Deploying the airbag reliably, safely, and quickly enough to protect the phone and its user from harm
    • Developing thorough code which can handle constant data monitoring, and quickly analyze when it is being dropped from the real world information it receives.

Obstacles

• Safety
  • Premature detonation of our airbag system (Literally blowing your pants off).
• Cost
  • Airbags are expensive and typically designed to only be used once.
• Powering / Triggering
  • We plan to run an Arduino off of it, which means we need some sort of external power supply. We also need power to help the device to trigger.
    • We will be using a 12V DC solenoid valve, this will require an external power supply as well with a transistor to switch it on or off.
• Size
  • Creating a case or device small enough to maintain the shape and convenience of your device without compromising safety.
• Case
  • Designing, fitting, and printing or building a case to fit specific electronics so we can maximize protection.
  • Building an airbag which will deploy in such a way as to maximize protection but still deploy in time with no snags.

Costs

Related links / approximations from looking around the World Wide Web Costs:

• Arduino (Uno provided, may need a different smaller model but currently are doing our test and design with the uno.)
• Electronic Solenoid Valve ~ $12 - link
• Airbag Material ~
• Threaded 16g CO2 Cartridges ~$47.95 for 50: link
• Arduino Accelerometer (GY-521) ~ Provided , link

Thingiverse

Gantt Chart