Automation Challenges of Socio-technical Systems

9 Development of an Intelligent Garment for Crisis Management: Fire Control Application

9.1. Introduction

Considered as a wearable system, an intelligent and connected garment represents an opportunity for meeting the specific needs of various populations. An intelligent garment is capable of carrying out online monitoring of the wearer’s health and well-being thanks to the use of sensors close to his/her body and embedded in the textile. Based on measured data, it can provide intelligent services to the target population (the elderly, the disabled, soldiers, security agents, athletes, etc.) in order to manage and optimize their day-to-day activities, such as physical exercise control, geolocation, monitoring and forecasting of chronic diseases, as well as helping to cope with food nutrition control, stress and depression, disease risk management, injuries and shortcomings [SUH 10].

In practice, an intelligent garment builds a second skin used as an interface between the wearer and his/her environment. During the design phase, it makes it possible to integrate the following components: sensors for monitoring physiological signals (cutaneous temperatures, breathing, heart rate, amount of sweat, movements, etc.), as well as environmental signals (air temperature, humidity, air pollution, etc.); actuators for controlling garment movement and displaying visual effects; a microcontroller for collecting and processing measured data; a communication system with a cloud platform; ...