PFI-TT: Wearable Strain Sensors for Real-Time Joint Angle Tracking in Sports

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is in enabling motion tracking in sports. The proposed technology can be complementary to, and in some cases replace, the existing wearable global positioning system (GPS) and inertial sensors. In particular, joint kinematics is of critical importance for many sports.

In the near term, this innovation in wearable sensing technology will provide an accurate, wireless, unobtrusive, launderable, and reliable solution to track joint motions in sports. In the long term, in addition to sports performance monitoring, the wearable joint motion trackers could enable a broad range of new wearable applications such as human activity and health monitoring, human-machine interfaces, prosthetics, and robotics.

The educational/leadership development plan of this project provides the graduate and undergraduate students with training in interdisciplinary areas including implementation and business entrepreneurship as well as experience in technology transfer and commercialization.

The proposed project seeks to develop a wearable system for directly tracking joint angles using stretchable strain sensors based on silver nanowires. The proposed wearable joint motion tracking method may competently address several challenges. First, the proposed nanowire-based wearable sensors are mechanically stretchable and comfortable to wear.

Second, the capacitive sensing allows for fast response time, low hysteresis, and constant gauge factor over a wide strain range. Third, scalable manufacturing and integration with textiles are feasible. This technology will fill the increasing need for accurate and unobtrusive monitoring of human joint motions.

This PFI technology development and commercialization project integrates the sensors with a variety of sports textiles/tapes and other components to develop wearable systems, to develop data analytics to process continuous data streams and communicate performance information, and to test and evaluate the wearable system in athletic training.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.