The Concept of a Poly-Functional Ballistic Shield

Abstract

Police and military units are employing the use of additional, portable protection in the form of various types of ballistic shields ever more often. They are not only used for protecting a single operator, but rather entire assault groups or bystanders. The work analyses the ballistic shields used presently and the requirements of the law enforcement forces; on this basis, the assumptions used for designing a poly-functional ballistic shield have been formulated. The design employed so-called “origami engineering”, i.e. a field tasked with designing geometrically-shifting materials by changing the location of the components. The prototype’s design is presented, and the path to its development is indicated.