Abstract
Recent advances in flexible electronics have offered a good opportunity in designing a variety of wearable devices for healthcare monitoring, prevention medicine, and robotic control. Wearable sensors are entering the era of digital health, with compelling functionalities in recording vital signs, physiological signals, body kinetics, and dynamic biomolecular state. Meanwhile, energy harvesters that scavenge waste energy from body motions and the ambient environment have received intense attention, which are expected to realize self-powered or energy-autonomous systems. Moving towards the inside of the body, the implantable device also plays an indispensable role in monitoring key biomedical and physiological information and effective treatment of chronic diseases. Besides, wearable robotic exoskeletons have enabled advanced functionalities of assisting or augmenting human mobilities unprecedently. These technologies and platforms will be merged, giving way to the bodyNET: a network of wearable sensors, implantable devices, and exoskeletons for improved healthcare and health outcomes. In this article, we offer a brief review of recent advances in flexible and wearable sensors and summarize the progress of self-powered wearable sensors based on piezoelectric and triboelectric nanogenerators. We also discuss the implantable devices and self-powered neuromodulation systems and offer recent works of lower-limb exoskeletons. Lastly, we present a future trend towards a comprehensive and capable bodyNET for advanced healthcare and reinforced life quality.
Highlights
T HE PERPETUAL pursuit of superior life quality by virtue of the functionality reinforcement from external devices propel the ceaseless advancement of wearable electronics towards multifunctional wearable systems [1]–[6]
We firstly present an overview of current representative wearable sensors with various functionalities and summarize the progress of self-powered wearable sensors based on the piezoelectric and triboelectric nanogenerators (Section II), and we introduced a few self-sustainable sensing systems based on nanogenerators (Section III)
As we are entering the era with advanced wireless communication (5G, 6G, IoT) and AI technology, a variety of sensors can form an artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) network with a cloud server to collect, store, and analyze data for smart decisions [143], [147]
Summary
T HE PERPETUAL pursuit of superior life quality by virtue of the functionality reinforcement from external devices propel the ceaseless advancement of wearable electronics towards multifunctional wearable systems [1]–[6]. To ensure good cooperation with the physiology and biomechanics of the human body, the exoskeleton requires accurate and multi-dimensional sensory information attained from wearable sensors as the control feedback In such a case, the rapid progress of the diversified wearable sensors would in turn push forward the evolution of exoskeletons to a new level. As we are entering the era of cybernetics with a strong urge for technical health aids in our daily activities, a more comprehensive and capable body network is desired [92] In this regard, we further broaden the concept of the bodyNET, a network incorporating wearable sensors, implantable medical devices, and powerful exoskeletons to provide healthcare monitoring, therapeutic treatment, and mobility reinforcement or assistance for the users. The future trends towards the future comprehensive and capable bodyNET for advanced healthcare and reinforced life quality as well as the possible challenges are discussed (Section VI)
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