Instrumented Football Helmet Louis Criso (ECE) Francis Kitrick (ECE) Ryan Lewis (ME) Robert Sorbello (ECE)

Problem Statement Design a system to detect head injuries during football games. Project involves aspects of electrical, computer, and mechanical engineering. Each team member worked on a specific aspect of the project

Motivation There are 160 concussions sustained in the NFL every year. Roughly 17% of all high school football players in the U.S. will suffer a concussion each year. Untreated concussions can be detrimental to a player’s long-term health.

Presentation Objectives Circuit Board Design – Robert Sorbello Processor Coding – Louis Criso Data Interpretation Software – Francis Kitrick Mechanical Testing – Ryan Lewis

Approach Integrate flex sensors and accelerometers into helmet. Store data on memory card Graph data with Matlab software Flex Sensors Accelerometers Battery ARMexpress LITE Memory Card a Matlab Software +

The Schematic Processor MMC Accelerometers Flex Sensors Battery Voltage Regulators

The Printed Circuit Board (PCB)

ARMexpress LITE Features 32K Flash memory 6 A/D channels, 100kHz sample rate SPI support with 600 Kb transfer rate

Memory Map Local array is located from hex values 7C00 to 8000. (1K) Flash memory is available from roughly 5000 to 7C00. (~11K)

A/D Channels 6 A/D Channels Chosen sampling rate: 340 Hz 6*340 Hz = 2040 bytes of data for one second 1020 bytes of space needed to record hits for 500 ms. A/D channels are consistently sampled until threshold is reached. Once threshold is reached by any one of the sensors, then the next 500 ms will be stored in a local 1 kilobyte array and subsequently recorded to the memory card.

Software Flow Chart

Software Analysis Data is saved as it is streamed from the processor. Output file as read by software is a long array of integer values.

Software Analysis Data from all sensors are stored in assigned spots according to the type of sensor it was obtained from. (accelerometer or flex) To do this the program picks out the corresponding data values for each individual sensor. This is possible because we know the processor output from the hardware coding.

Displaying Results Data values from each sensor are plotted vs time to show impacts over the course of game play. Spikes in plot are “concussion-possible” impacts.

Results Sample data plotting.

Meaning of Results Values from sensors are compared against prior known threshold values corresponding to intensity of hit to the helmet. Calculations obtained from mechanical testing apparatus/test dummy.

Mechanical Tasks Completed Head Impact Research Researched current studies on concussion prevention and testing Apparatus Design & Construction Used existing design for inspiration of apparatus Apparatus Analysis Completed dynamic analysis of apparatus

Apparatus Design Simple pendulum Use design specifications from existing patent for football helmet testing (US 6,871,525 B2). 2 m long arm with a 19 kg impactor, generating 280 J of energy. With this information from patent generated MathCAD file to solve for initial angle (75 degrees)

Post Impact Analysis After the information from the sensors and accelerometers is gathered, the data needs to be analyzed to determine threshold. The Gadd Severity Index (GSI): Pass/fail basis: over 1,000 is a fail.

Tasks To Be Completed Integrate the components into the helmet. Sensor Calibration Test the final design. Implement our design into a real event?

Updated Schedule

Cost of Production Our Total: $276.25 Industry Total: $446.25 Item Our Cost Industry Cost Accelerometer (3) $31.25 Flex Sensor (3) $60.00 ARMexpress LITE $50.00 ARM Development Board 9V battery $2.00 PCB $51.00 Testing Materials $30.00 Memory Card Reader Helmet* No cost $170.00 Our Total: $276.25 Industry Total: $446.25 *Our cost was lower due to the Villanova Football team providing us with a used helmet.

Conclusion Recommendations: Questions? Wireless transmission of the data in real time. Battery life gauge Increasing overall memory Direct USB connection Questions?