Porous conductive composite as piezoresistive sensors for smart safety helmet

Abstract

Safety helmets are essential protective gear for workers in hazardous environments, capable of reducing external impact forces by 90 %. Proper wearing of a helmet in any situation is crucial for ensuring maximum protection. In dangerous scenarios, if a helmet is dislodged or misaligned due to an external impact, it makes following impacts difficult to prevent. Quick adjustment to the correct position is essential. In this context, it is important to develop a smart helmet system capable of monitoring the spatial pressure distribution that shows proper usage of helmet at the boundary between the helmet and head. Such a system could further provide guidance to users for proper wearing, enhancing safety in the work environment. This paper introduces the micro-porous elastomeric conductive composite as a soft, ultra-sensitive pressure sensor for low pressure regime (0–200 kPa). The sensor combines with a vibrotactile actuator and microcontroller, creating a haptic interface that responds to changes in pressure. Integrating haptic interfaces into safety helmets, smart helmets yield a system capable of real-time measurement of pressure between the helmets and head and delivers the wearing conditions to users. Detailed research into the materials, mechanical engineering aspects of this device, along with pilot perception tests, establishes the technical foundation and measurement capabilities of the proposed system.