Hapti-met: A Construction Helmet with Directional Haptic Feedback for Roadway Worker Safety

Construction workers account for 20% of pedestrian fatalities around roadway work zones in the United States. Recent innovations in wearable warning devices roadway construction safety have proposed activating haptic (i.e., vibration motor) notifications in safety vests to alert workers of the direction of hazardous vehicles (speeding, collision). However, the vests’ embedded motors may lose effectiveness when worn outside of heavy clothing (i.e., winter clothes). This study introduces a novel safety helmet wearable, “Haptimet,” that similarly employs direction-based notifications with vibration motors activated directly onto a roadway worker’s head. The study also proposes a method for evaluating the wearable’s impact on workers’ life safety, utilising a virtual reality (VR) environment where human roadway workers must work while avoiding simulated collision vehicles. Preliminary results show a 9.8% reduction in collisions with vehicles when workers receive haptic notifications from Hapti-met compared to when they do not.