Active Quiet Pillow

Phase II of this project will focus on developing, constructing and demonstrating the operation of an prototype Active Quiet Pillow for reducing interior noise in helicopter medical evacuation scenarios. The innovation is based on a strategic combination of active noise reduction (ANR) and passive treatment elements in a pillow style arrangement. Two performance objectives to be demonstrated include laboratory testing by attenuating a 106dB pink noise field to 80dBA at the patient’s ears and flight testing in a representative MEDEVAC helicopter with 15dBA attenuation. A sophisticated FE model of the active pillow and rotorcraft interior will be developed in conjunction with Genetic Algorithms to determine an optimal active pillow design for maximum performance. A prototype will be constructed and tested under laboratory protocols referenced to the ANSI S12.42-2010 standard and flight testing programs. Practical product design aspects related to the size, weight, power consumption and integration into the MEDEVAC rotorcraft interior will be developed and implemented. Human factors aspects such as the comfort of the active pillow, effect of speech intelligibility and signal recognition will be studied. The transition of the development work to a realistic product will also commence with our team partner UTRC/Sikorsky.