Rapid preliminary helmet shell design based on three-dimensional anthropometric head data

Abstract

The ergonomic design of helmets is very important for those who wear them for long periods on the job; for example, construction workers and security personnel. A helmet's weight, stability, and ability to protect are especially important. According to our case study, fitting design according to head shape can significantly reduce the weight and enhance the stability of a helmet. The traditional helmet design process takes a long time, and is thus unsuitable for individually customized shape design. In this paper, a rapid preliminary design method for the helmet shell and a corresponding toolkit are introduced, taking advantage of three-dimensional (3D) anthropometric head scans. A 3D head model is first generated from the 3D head scan of the intended user or representative user of an intended population group. Then a semi-parametric surface modelling tool is applied to quickly generate the helmet shell by simply inputting several parameters related to helmet protection, size, and shape requirements and adjusting several key curves. In a case study, the new design by the proposed method and the existing design by the traditional method were compared with regard to weight, centroid, and moments of inertia to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.