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EMPLOYER: Sedona Scientific [More Info]
(A subsidiary of Simula Corp)
PROJECT: CABS ( Cockpit Air Bags System).
Project Description: The CABS system consists of four Airbags mounted in the cockpit of a helicopter. In the event of a crash, an electronic module called the ECSU (Electronic Crash Sensor Unit) will sense the crash and set off the airbags to protect the occupants while recording the accelerations produced for later analysis of the crash conditions. Sedona Scientific was responsible for the ECSU portion of the system.
My contributions to the project begin as a contract engineer with the design of the first generation hardware; continued as a full time employee designing hardware and software; then culminated in my promotion to project manager.
NOTE: The system has won two national awards and more important, functioned properly in two crashes of BlackHawk helicopters, thus saving the lives of the occupants. To this day the CABS system is the only airbag deployment system in production for helicopters.
Example Persional Contribution:
Over the course of five years, the CABS project produced two generations of hardware and software. The second generation was in response to a crisis, which threatened to cancel the project. At this time, the CABS system provided over 80% of the companies income (The remaining portion of the contract was worth over 20 million dollars, not counting spin-offs). My contributions were instrumental in completing the third generation design and producing the following results:
- The production portion of the contract is continuing, as well as spin-off contracts.
- All technical, logistics and performance goals were achieved.
- The design and testing phase was completed and the system is now in production.
- The per unit assembly cost was reduced by over 30% while increasing the reparability and testability.
- The system has won two national awards for innovative design and excellence.
- My conceptual and technical design contributions for the power supply portion of the CABS System have been patented by Sedona Scientifics' parent company Simula INC.
- I was personally awarded the Simula Safety Systems “Presidents Award” in recognition of outstanding performance and contributions to the CABS project.
First Generation Design Contributions:
Responsible for the following:
The project was in danger of being canceled due to a customer decision to add additional requirements. Our immediate customer (AATD - Aviation Applied Technology Directorate) felt that an extensive redesign would be too expensive and was planning on canceling the contract unless a low cost solution could be found.
The critical requirements consisted of:
- Reduce the probability of inadvertent activation by a factor of 1000.
- Eliminate the batteries in the backup power supply. (Requires maintenance and replacement)
- Maintain the present physical envelope.
- Meet the existing reliability requirements despite the increase in complexity.
My contributions during this generation were:
Conceptual Stage
- Promoted to Program Manager.
- Proposed unconventional modifications to the design that would allow the new specifications to be met for a minimum increase in initial project cost while reducing the assembly and maintenance costs.
- Authored presentation material outlining the proposed changes along with budget estimates and an accelerated schedule to minimize the time lost during the modifications.
- Presented the technical description, mechanical packaging and implementation portions of the new approach in meetings with the customer.
- At the customer's request, performed Research and Development efforts to verify the feasibility of various aspects of the proposal.
- Presented the result of the R&D effort to the customer during a design review meeting.
Design Stage
- Management of the design portion of the project modifications.
- Design of all hardware changes.
- Production of documentation (Schematics).
- Software structure design and some software implementation.
- Management of an accelerated mechanical repackaging effort to design the physical modifications.
Implementation Stage
- Management of the remaining engineering portion of the project.
- Authored initial testing procedures.
- Provided engineering and repair support as needed during completion of the prototypes.
- Presented progress information to the customer design review meetings.
Field Testing and Production Stages
- Company representative and field engineer during preliminary EMC testing prior to final testing.
- Company representative in the field during the final and formal acceptance testing. This was the critical “Must Pass” testing required to continue into production. I was company representative during the following phases:
- EMC (Electro Magnetic Compatibility).
- Lightning.
- Reliability.
- Engineering support as needed to solve production problems.
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