ES1298466U - CLIMBING SAFETY ALARM FOR AUTOMATIC DESCENT DEVICES IN CLIMBING CALLS (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding) - Google Patents

Abstract

Climbing security alarm for automatic descent devices in climbing gyms, of the type that has a start, data loading, surveillance and alarm state, characterized in that it comprises a device with a casing (1) that externally comprises a push button or button (2) to turn off the alarm and some leds (3) of yellow, green, red and blue color, internally comprising the necessary hardware for the operation of the device, in particular at least one Arduino board, a barometric sensor, an accelerometer, an RFID reader and an active buzzer. (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding)

Description

DESCRIPTION

SECURITY ALARM IN ESCALATION FOR DEVICES OF

AUTOMATIC DESCENT IN ROCODROMES

Object of the invention

The utility model presented refers to a climbing safety alarm for automatic descent devices in climbing walls, which significantly improves the existing means and articles of similar use disclosed on the market and in the current state of the art. .

Specifically, this innovation refers to a system that activates an alarm when it detects that the climber is not properly attached to the safety device and therefore there is a risk of falling.

Technical sector

This invention fits in the sector that corresponds to the technology that contemplates security elements especially applied to mountaineering equipment and manual equipment for climbers, and more particularly alarm systems that react to a single specified, undesirable or abnormal condition.

Background of the invention and state of the art

The rise of interest in climbing as a sport is notable, but obviously the physical requirements that it demands and the risk that a lack of experience entails are impediments that limit access to this sport. However, the opening of the so-called climbing walls has been imposed, a sports facility specially designed and prepared to host the practice of climbing in an urban environment and at any time, without the need to travel to the mountains.

These are spaces that have vertical constructions of different materials, heights and inclinations that simulate a rocky wall and in which a diversity of elements called dams are distributed, fixed to them by means of screws, of various shapes, volumes, materials and colors. , and that act as gripping means for the hands and support for the feet of the climber, so that they help their advance in their upward journey on the climbing wall.

The spatial distribution of these dams is not capricious but strategic with the aim of drawing a diversity of routes to reach the area of maximum height, which allows the establishment of routes with different degrees of difficulty for the climber and pose challenges based on the progress of their experience. The climbing wall also has ropes, especially in the higher areas, to help the climber in his progress.

The installation of the climbing wall requires the implementation of security measures duly verified according to the corresponding regulations, some that the climber must wear and others installed on the climbing wall and at the base of it. Among the first, and in addition to comfortable clothing and footwear, it is usually necessary to use harnesses related to cordage and pockets for magnesium powders.

The security measures of the installation itself, in addition to mats to cushion the fall of climbers, especially inexperienced ones who work on easy routes, materialize in the installation in the upper part of the wall of a vertical fall arrest system, materialized in a plurality of braking devices called self-safety, considered, due to its operation, as an active system. This device contains a strap with a carabiner at its end that obviously clips onto the harness worn by the climber. As the climber advances vertically, the self-belay strap automatically wraps around the original device. When the climber wants to go down, he lets himself fall and the tape comes out of the device again but with a semi-braked speed, which allows the climber to climb safely as he is always secured to a firm anchor point by means of the described tape and also a safe descent by maintaining the physical link with the webbing attached to the climber's harness by means of a carabiner. This self-insurance device works by means of magnetic braking and with minimal friction, which makes it an easy-to-use system, smooth in winding and unwinding the tape, without sudden jumps that endanger the stability of the climber.

Since the self-insurance device is immovably anchored to the vertical wall, when the climber changes the route of ascent, he must necessarily link his harness to the device that corresponds to the route in question, so the action of attaching the tape with the carabiner to the harness must be repeated constantly during the climbing practice in the climbing wall.

And precisely, repeating the same action over and over again when starting a climb means that the routine is sometimes considered already done when in fact it has not been done, and the climber begins the climb without securing the self-insurance device.

In terms of industrial property, there are different patents that develop safety systems to prevent falls while climbing or during activities or work that are carried out, by their very nature, at height and not at ground level. The US10909831B1 file develops systems and methods to control the attachment of a lifeline assembly to a harness worn by a worker using a motion detector module (MDM), which may include a weatherproof housing containing motion detection circuitry. motion to detect significant motion associated with the movement of the worker, timing circuits to monitor the time between significant motions, and a communications transceiver to transmit information about significant motion and/or the absence thereof to a nearby computing device. The nearby computing device can be a portable device carried by the user or it can be located at a work site and configured to monitor multiple MDMs at the site. The MDM and/or computing device may issue audible alerts in the absence of significant motion detection. The computing device can communicate breach alerts to a remote computing system of a workplace administrator.

File JP2020000402A presents a monitoring system to prevent forgetfulness of fastening seat belts and to allow knowing the current position of each worker to guarantee safety. Includes a safety belt comprising a safety hook for generating a contact signal and a safety latch-and-forget annunciator for sounding an alarm until the contact signal is received to thereby generate and transmit an alarm signal in accordance with the alarm; a first mobile communication terminal carried by a worker with a safety belt, receiver of the alarm signal, and capable of acquiring self-positioning information data and transmitting it; and a second mobile communication terminal carried by a manager, receiving the alarm signal and the position information data, displaying the worker's working position based on these, and displaying whether or not the safety hook is hooked to a supporting rope.

Patent WO2019080089A1 develops a system comprising a smart hook, a safety harness module and associated electronics that detect a user's safety status by monitoring various parameters on the smart hook and the safety harness module and determine if the user is using the proper safety protocol at extreme heights and/or if the user has suffered a height related accident. It includes the use of sensors that monitor the user's acceleration/speed/position and/or the ambient air pressure around the user.

US2014266720A1 provides a permission-based alarm system for use in climbing environments that includes an identification device that stores a permission setting related to an aspect of the climbing environment and a detection module in communication with the identification device. The detection module detects the permission settings stored in the identification device and detects the proximity of the identification device to an area restricted by the permission settings. When the identification device enters the restricted area of the climbing environment, an alert is provided.

These technical solutions are, a priori, functional to achieve the objective they propose, but they are either focused on work at height that involves circumstances unrelated to the vertical ascent of the person, such as metrological conditions or other unforeseen because they are activities that are carried out carried out in uncontrolled environments or, in the case of focusing on climbing issues, propose solutions of high technical complexity.

The applicant is not aware of a simple technical solution in the current state of the art, in terms of industrial property or on the market, to warn that the climber is not subject to self-insurance means in climbing walls, with the characteristics techniques that are detailed in this utility model.

Description of the invention

The purpose of the invention presented is a climbing safety alarm for automatic descent devices in climbing walls, the proposed technical solution being simple in its conformation, activation and operation.

The essential objective is to have a system for climbing walls that acts to alert the climber and the staff of the enclosure that a physical link has not been established between said climber and the mandatory security element.

This alarm takes the form of a device with a plastic casing, flexible and non-sharp in the event of breakage, and inside which the necessary hardware for its operation is encapsulated, which includes at least:

- An Arduino board

- A barometric sensor

- An accelerometer

- An RFID reader

- An active buzzer

Externally, the device comprises LEDs.

For its part, the self-locking carabiner includes a passive RFID chip that ensures its detection at a distance of up to 10cm.

The device, small in size, is attached to the ventral ring of the harness on the inside. And it is essential to point out that it does not include any shutdown button, so the climber cannot intervene in its automatic operation.

Programming comprises four states or modes: startup, data upload, watchdog, and alarm.

Specifically, the device manages the altitude at which the climber moves through the barometric sensor that is initialized when attached to the harness and determines the base starting altitude, activating a blinking yellow LED in the process and filling an array with measurements of height at least every two seconds until completing a collection of at least 10 measurements in the state or data upload mode.

Once this process is complete, the blinking yellow LED turns off and a continuous green LED is activated, indicating that the device is in surveillance status or mode.

When the climber starts the vertical ascent, the device detects an increase in altitude with a sensitivity of 1m. and compares it with the mean of the measurements taken at initialization.

At the same time, the device detects the proximity of the RFID chip located in the carabiner of the self-belay located on the ventral ring of the harness.

If this detection is negative, that is, it does not detect the RFID chip, the device enters an alarm state or mode, indicating sound and/or light alert signals, with red and blue LEDs flashing alternately. To turn off the alarm, the device comprises a button that deactivates the alarm and returns the system to the start state or mode.

The device, as such, cannot be turned off, it does not have a means of turning it off or disconnection, it only has a button accessible only with a paper clip or punch to perform a complete reset of the system.

Additionally, the device comprises an accelerometer sensor intended to detect and measure horizontal movement, the purpose of which is to rule out situations in which the climber moves in other circumstances that involve the concept of height, such as climbing stairs.

Likewise, it is important to point out that the device's altitude data collection activity is constant, it analyzes the coherence between them, with readings with a difference of less than 1m, and a negative measurement of the accelerometer, so that it updates the base height every 20 seconds, readjusting its operation and its calculations based on the variations detected.

Note that the height data collection sensitivity is adjustable based on what is required in the intended uses.

Description of the drawings

For a better understanding of what is described in this report, a drawing is attached, which shows the different states or modes of its operation.

Figure 1.- Schematic view of the device

Description of a preferred embodiment

Figure 1 shows a schematic image of the device, with a casing (1) that externally comprises a push button or button (2) to turn off the alarm and at least one LED that intervenes to indicate the state or operating mode of the device, specifically, state or start mode, data loading, surveillance or alarm. In a preferred embodiment, it comprises leds (3) of yellow, green, red and blue colors that are activated in the following correspondence: flashing yellow in the start state or mode and data load, green continuous light in state or surveillance mode and red and blue alternate flashing in state or alarm mode. Internally, the case incorporates the necessary hardware for the operation of the device, in particular at least one Arduino board, a barometric sensor, an accelerometer, an RFID reader and an active buzzer. The auto-belay carabiner comprises a passive RFID chip.

As a summary, the flowchart of the different states or modes in which the device works, as stated above, is as follows: the initial state or mode leads to a second state or data loading mode in which the altitude reading is determined, the variables and the base altitude is established, saving the data obtained in an altitude array. If the data is coherent, the initial flashing yellow led changes to a continuous light green led of the third state or mode, monitoring.

With the altitude data saved, and in the surveillance state or mode, the system, through the device's RFID reader, must detect the proximity of the RFID chip located in the self-belay carabiner located on the ventral ring of the harness. If it is not detected, the alarm goes off, the flashing red and blue leds are activated until the climber turns off said alarm, at which point the system returns to the initial state or mode and the entire process restarts.

Based on all that has been stated, it is easy to understand the advantages that this invention entails.

It is a device developed to act together with the active self-insurance systems located in the upper area of the climbing wall, in correspondence with the route that the climber is going to travel.

Its use is very simple, without any complications for the climber, who only has to hold it in the front part of the harness. All its operation is automatic, without any external intervention, except for the manual pressing of the button to turn off the alarm and return to its state or start mode.

The design of the device is also very simple, small in size and with the outer casing made of flexible and non-cutting material in the event of a break in it.

Obviously, the new alarm must not interfere in any way with the security systems installed in the climbing wall, but this circumstance is easily assumable as it is a device owned by the facility itself, so it is understood that technical development is adjusted and coordinated with the systems in use.

It is an effective and low-cost solution to warn of the lack of fastening of the harness with the tape of the active self-restraint system. This is its only objective and purpose. The data that is recorded in the device during the climbing activity is only necessary for its proper functioning. In no case are they stored or sent to any terminal.

Optionally, the alarm issued by the device can be linked to an App so that it can be received on the mobile of a person in charge of the climbing wall.

The device is the property of the climbing wall, as is all the material used, which the climber collects to start the activity and delivers at the end of it.

It is not considered necessary to make this description more extensive so that any expert in the field understands the scope of the invention and the advantages derived from it. The materials, shape and size will be subject to variation as long as this does not imply an alteration in the essential nature of the invention. The terms in which this report has been drafted should always be taken in a broad and non-limiting sense.

Claims (2)

1a Climbing safety alarm for automatic descent devices in climbing walls, of the type that has a start, data load, surveillance and alarm state, characterized in that it comprises a device with a casing (1) that externally includes a push button o button (2) to turn off the alarm and some leds (3) of yellow, green, red and blue color, internally comprising the necessary hardware for the operation of the device, in particular at least one Arduino board, a barometric sensor, a accelerometer, an RFID reader and an active buzzer. 2nd Climbing safety alarm for automatic descent devices in climbing walls, according to claim 1, characterized in that the hardware of the device interacts with a passive RFID chip located in the self-locking carabiner of a ventral ring of a harness. 3rd Climbing security alarm for automatic descent devices in climbing walls, according to the ia and 2nd claims, characterized in that when a vertical climb begins, the system, through the RFID reader of the device, detects the positive proximity of the RFID chip located on the self-belay carabiner located on the ventral ring of the harness. 4. Climbing safety alarm for automatic descent devices in climbing walls, according to claim 1, characterized in that the alarm state or mode is turned off by means of the push button or button (2). 5. Climbing safety alarm for automatic descent devices in climbing walls, according to claim 1, characterized in that the casing (1) of the device is plastic, flexible and non-cutting.