Increased interest in the short and long‐term health risks of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has led to the development of wearable sensors designed to monitor real‐time head kinematics. To be effective, sensors should be accurate, unobtrusive, low‐maintenance, user‐friendly, and scalable to a large population. They should also be evaluated with appropriate Post‐Mortem Human Subject (PMHS) studies, as real‐world impact tests are necessary. Therefore, the objectives of the present study were to develop a methodology to instrument the PMHS head with sensors mounted within the cranium and close to the cranium’s center‐of‐gravity (cg) as determined by CT images.

The cg kinematics from the CT‐placed internal sensor matched well with the computed cg kinematics of the externally placed sensors standardly used in impact biomechanics tests, though these tests did not include Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). To demonstrate the feasibility of the methodology and data acquired from the internal sensors, controlled tests were conducted on PMHS‐helmet systems. This process can be effectively used to conduct efficacy evaluations with different types of helmets and other head‐mounted wearable sensors, something urgently needed in the sports and military communities. Additionally, this methodology may be useful in the design of experiments used for validating human body models in highly automated vehicle environments.