Smart Helmet and Insole Sensors for Near Fall Incidence Recognition during Descent of Stairs

Abstract

Stair falls on construction sites are leading causes of fatal injuries, and the dangers for workers are greater because they usually carry heavy loads. Nevertheless, there are very few studies related to stair falls among construction workers. The purpose of this study was to detect near fall incidence during stair descent and analyze the changes in weight bearing and center of pressure. A total of 10 healthy males participated in this study. Three experimental conditions were set up to analyze stair falls: natural descent (E1), weighted descent (E2), and near fall-simulated descent (E3). While walking down the stairs, subjects wore a three-axis accelerometer sensor attached to a Smart Helmet and a pair of textile pressure sensors (insole) placed inside Smart Shoes. The collected data were analyzed for: (1) whole body balance, (2) plantar pressure distribution, (3) head tilt pattern, and (4) conformity between the helmet and insole sensors. The results showed that our proposed smart helmet and smart shoes have relatively good performance in terms of classifying the weight-shifting patterns in the head and the feet during stair descent. The results of this study may be helpful in detecting near falls of workers on construction sites.

Advanced sensor technologies and the future of work

“…Of the types of wearable sensors, sensors that can be attached or linked to the worker are the most prevalent in work settings today. Designed with “wear‐and‐forget” functionality, 36,51 attached wearables can be worn on or over clothing such as vests 52 ; attached to safety helmets 53,54 ; incorporated into footwear 55 ; worn as smart eyeglasses 33 or contact lenses 34 ; or placed in the external auditory canal 35 . Optimizing the location of attached wearables depends on the sensor's monitoring purpose, need for interaction between the sensor controls and the worker, display reachability, weight, and worker acceptance 51…”

Applications of Smart Helmet in Applied Sciences: A Systematic Review

“…A total of 22 academic papers that deal with the applications of smart helmets for workers were published during the past 11 years [8,9,[90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109] and are summarized in Table 3. The application fields include mining, construction, petrochemistry, disaster prevention, and medical treatment.…”

“…Three studies have been reported in the construction industry, where smart helmets were primarily used to detect workplace hazards and provide risk alarms to construction workers [8,100,101]. For example, a safety helmet with gravity and head movement sensors was used at the construction site to detect a falling worker and activate emergency rescue requests [8]. Four studies on smart helmets were conducted to support voice communication between workers and warn them by detecting injuries in general manufacturing sites [102][103][104][105].…”

“…In the mining industry, 10 studies were performed on a smart helmet that detects harmful gases, such as carbon monoxide (CO) and methane (CH 4 ), and guarantees the safety of workers through rescue requests in the case of a dangerous situation [90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99]. Three studies have been reported in the construction industry, where smart helmets were primarily used to detect workplace hazards and provide risk alarms to construction workers [8,100,101]. For example, a safety helmet with gravity and head movement sensors was used at the construction site to detect a falling worker and activate emergency rescue requests [8].…”

“…Research on smart helmet applications is being conducted in various fields to improve safety and efficiency of motorcyclists [7] and workers [8,9]. For example, Singh et al [7] studied the application of smart helmets to detect portholes and collect air quality data…”