Recent achievements in the field of miniaturization of electronics have led to a significant interest in its application into the protective clothing for firefighters in order to improve their safety and health. However, up to now there are not any requirements and standardized test methods enabling confirmation of safety of use and functionality of these systems in work environment. In the paper, an importance of evaluation of such smart wearable system in predicted utility conditions is highlighted. Three variants of the specially developed personal warning systems (PWSs) for integration with either health status or environmental sensors to be used in smart protective clothing for firefighters are presented, i.e., with LCD display, LED diodes and vibrating element. For the purpose of evaluation a new testing methodology was developed. The PWSs were evaluated on a basis of perception of warning signals by firefighters in simulated utility conditions including temperature, light, noise, fog and performed activities. In the case of marching, even 75% of signals generated by PWS with LCD display were not received. Physical activity did not influence on functionality of PWS with vibrating element. For the PWS with LED diodes, the signal was received statistically significantly quicker than in the case of other PWS and the mean value of voice response time was below 3 s.
Keywords: firefighters; smart PPE; smart clothing; warning systems; wearables.