NSF Award
2128907
This project investigates adoption and perception of automated, adaptive, and intelligent firefighter exoskeleton suits by career and volunteer firefighters in order to mitigate injury, increase workplace safety, and address challenges experienced by underrepresented groups, such as women in firefighting. Given the critical role of firefighters and that nearly two-thirds of all firefighters are volunteers, it is essential to increase longevity and retention of firefighters, especially in ageing rural communities. To improve safety and inclusivity in firefighting, the team is designing a novel exoskeleton suit that is personalized to a broad range of firefighters by studying how firefighters from various backgrounds perform tasks and how they may be equipped with knowledge of the environment through intelligent sensing. The team is forging partnerships with local fire departments, groups involved in firefighting safety, companies involved in manufacturing equipment and components that enable low-cost exoskeleton development, and organizations advocating for underrepresented groups such as women in firefighting. Through these connections, the team is gathering information on challenges faced by firefighters to inform the design of integrated adaptable exoskeleton suits for firefighting. The project has direct impact on improving safety, productivity, longevity, and inclusion for rural firefighters and fire departments, strengthening firefighter retention and recruitment for this essential societal service. The project is providing research opportunities to women and students from underrepresented groups through programs supported by the Community of Underrepresented Professional Opportunities at Clarkson.<br/><br/>The team integrates expertise from ergonomics, biomechanics, dynamics, control, materials, structures, sensing, user interfaces, artificial intelligence (AI), and sociology to accomplish the project objectives during the planning phase. The team is conducting studies to analyze the biomechanical and ergonomical characteristics as firefighters perform functional tasks while being recorded by dense multimodal environment sensors. The team is collaborating to create a design for an integrated exoskeleton suit that assists the firefighter as needed and that adapts to a broad range of firefighters. The project involves extensive stress testing of sensors and AI algorithms to equip the suit with intelligent detection of human and object targets under extreme conditions. The team is conducting meetings and surveys to evaluate the perceptions of firefighters and the firefighting community related to exoskeleton adoption, safety considerations, potential for injury mitigation, and barriers faced by underrepresented groups that deincentivize volunteering or pursuing firefighting as a career.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
