journal article·2024-01-10Open access

Integration of Active Clothing with a Personal Cooling System within the NGIoT Architecture for the Improved Comfort of Construction Workers

Anna Dąbrowska, Monika Kobus, Piotr Sowiński, Łukasz Starzak, Bartosz Pękosławski

Applied Sciences· Volume 14· Issue 2

Abstract

Intense physical activity and high ambient temperature cause construction workers to be exposed to an increased risk of overheating, especially in the summer season. Personal cooling systems have great potential to support workers’ thermoregulation and reduce this risk. In particular, solutions based on the thermoelectric effect can provide high cooling effectiveness and ergonomics at the same time. In this paper, a newly developed active clothing solution with flexible thermoelectric modules intended for outdoor activities is presented. The active clothing was subjected to utility tests on a treadmill under laboratory conditions with the participation of potential end users. A comparison of results from cooled and uncooled places indicated a reduction in local skin temperature of as much as 2.7 °C. Moreover, a gradual decrease in temperature in the uncooled place during the experiment was observed. Based on the positive results from this evaluation, the personal cooling system was integrated into active clothing within the ASSIST-IoT NGIoT reference architecture. This allows contextual and personalized adjustment of the cooling power to be provided using AI techniques and, additionally, by using data from a weather station and a smartwatch. Training procedures and models for the AI system are proposed, with special attention paid to the privacy aspect.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Building Energy and Comfort Optimization · Infection Control and Ventilation · Indoor Air Quality and Microbial Exposure

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of Personal Protective Equipment, Central Institute for Labour Protection—National Research Institute, Wierzbowa 48, 90-133 Lodz, Poland

Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Newelska 6, 01-447 Warsaw, Poland

Faculty of Mathematics and Information Science, Warsaw University of Technology, ul. Koszykowa 75, 00-662 Warsaw, Poland

Department of Microelectronics and Computer Science, Lodz University of Technology, Wólczańska 221 B18, 93-005 Lodz, Poland

Funding

National Centre for Research and Development · European Commission

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