POPSS - Personal Over Pressure Sensing System

The Interdisciplinary Consulting Corporation (IC2) proposes to develop a low-cost, instrumentation-grade, personal over-pressure sensing system (POPSS). This MIL-spec wearable blast gauge system would record a time synchronized time-series record of an over-pressure events 3D-pressure sphere. These events would be recorded locally for later wired/wireless upload to a base-station or Nett Warrier system but simultaneously be processed locally to provide the end-user with immediate exposure data. The system employs an array of IC2’s commercialized custom-fabricated piezoelectric megahertz bandwidth MEMS pressure sensors (MHzPressuere©) to measure the blast exposure. The acquisition of the data will be performed leveraging an adapted and miniaturized version IC2’s instrumentation grade, wireless, time-synchronized data acquisition system (WirelessArray©), originally developed for large scale array aerospace flyover beamforming tests. Beyond the raw time-series data, the audio/pressure sensor and acquisition system are capable of collecting information about the wearer’s PKI, peak positive and negative overpressure, peak acceleration, impulse, date and time of the event, and event duration encountered by Service Members during operational training or deployments where they may be exposed to high-powered weapon systems, explosives, and other military equipment.  IC2 will improve the capabilities while reducing the costs associated with the deployment of currently available instrumentation-grade blast gauge systems while meeting the required specifications set out in the solicitation. The proposed integrated pressure sensor and acquisition system will expand the Army’s technology portfolio with a tool that allows for faster, more robust, higher accuracy monitoring at a lower total cost and that will be more accessible to new users than current systems. The advanced pressure measurement capabilities and robust enclosure of the proposed hardware will allow for the measurement and monitoring of the previously unquantified details of acoustic/blast events that service members are exposed to during training and operations. These improvements in measurement resolution, both temporal and spatial, will enable a more accurate understanding of concussive blast exposure of current service members, the effects of such exposure, and methods to minimize the exposure and/or mitigate its potential effects. The proposed high-performance MEMS sensor also allows the same system to be used simultaneously for general-purpose sound exposure measurements (>94 dBSPL, 1 Pa). The primary target application for the system is high-amplitude (<300 psi) acoustic/blast exposure measurements of service members during training and operations. However, the system’s uses may expand to general acoustic exposure measurements (<170 dBSPL or 4 psi) during service and deployment operations or in the commercial sector in industries such as construction and manufacturing.