An experimental new helmet could save drivers of construction vehicles from serious injuries. The device measures the extent to which its wearer is being shaken up while driving, and sounds an alert when the shaking gets to be too much.
Intended for use by drivers of rough-riding machines such as excavators and bulldozers, the helmet was designed by a team at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability.
Although it may look just like a regular helmet, the wearable has a flexible piezoelectret sensor built into an internal fastening strap that goes across the top of the user's head.
That sensor takes the form of a thin film made of aluminum-coated polypropylene foam, and it works largely by the piezoelectric effect, in which a material produces a measurable electrical signal when it's physically deformed. The greater the deformation, the higher the voltage.
As the wearer gets shaken up and down while driving their rig, the sensor repeatedly gets deformed, and thus produces signals. The voltage and frequency of those signals are relayed to a body-worn transmitter module, which transmits the information to a computer.
Software on that computer analyzes the data, and alerts the user if the shaking is deemed to have reached a dangerous level. They can then take a break, and perhaps try addressing the situation via measures such as adding damping elements to the seat.
It's definitely important that users do something, as excessive/prolonged shaking of the body can seriously damage the brain, spinal column and eyes. In fact, the sensing apparatus could additionally be utilized when designing construction vehicles, allowing shakiness to be detected and rectified before the vehicles ever reach production.
"The whole-body vibrations to which construction machine drivers are exposed reach acceleration values of 0.2 m/s² to 1.5 m/s² on average; peak values can be considerably higher," says Fraunhofer electromechanics expert Björn Seipel. "Our helmet sensor makes it easy to precisely measure the vibration load in everyday operations. Health protection can be considerably improved on this basis."
Source: Fraunhofer
