Advanced Head Mounting Environmental Device for NVG

To address the Air Force need for a lightweight, durable head-mounted system that allows the use of Night Vision Goggles (NVG) without a bulky helmet, POC proposes an Advanced Head Mounting Flight Environmental Device (AHMED) for the NVG based on a new head harness (wearable over the chemical mask) with a capless conformal strap going under the wearer’s chin with chin bone support. The AHMED’s unique head harness with a chin strap compensates the torque created by weight of the NVG device located in front of the user’s eyes, and its NVG disconnect device aligns the NVG relative to the user’s eyes. Innovations in AHMED’s novel design provide stability of NVG and preserve compatibility with the chemical protection assembly. The Phase I effort will demonstrate the feasibility of the AHMED system by presenting a preliminary design analysis that demonstrates minimal force stressors on the head and minimal fatigue on the neck for a variety of crew head shapes and sizes, and by assembling and testing a scaled-down demonstration prototype. One or more prototype devices will be built to ascertain the proper fit and to identify potential issues related to force concentrations on the head and neck fatigue.