Abstract
Wearable technologies are emerging as a useful tool with many different applications. While these devices are worn on the human body and can capture numerous data types, this literature review focuses specifically on wearable use for performance enhancement and risk assessment in industrial- and sports-related biomechanical applications. Wearable devices such as exoskeletons, inertial measurement units (IMUs), force sensors, and surface electromyography (EMG) were identified as key technologies that can be used to aid health and safety professionals, ergonomists, and human factors practitioners improve user performance and monitor risk. IMU-based solutions were the most used wearable types in both sectors. Industry largely used biomechanical wearables to assess tasks and risks wholistically, which sports often considered the individual components of movement and performance. Availability, cost, and adoption remain common limitation issues across both sports and industrial applications.
Highlights
The following criteria determined the selection of articles for further review: (1) relevance to the research question, (2) experimental data reporting the use of wearable technologies for biomechanical performance enhancement or risk assessment, or (3) a literature review of other biomechanical related wearable research
The narrative literature review based on articles from 2015 through 2021 revealed recent research that has been accomplished on biomechanical-capturing wearable devices as well as their benefits to researchers, industry analysts, and other health and safety decision-makers
Biomechanical wearables allow for performance enhancement and risk assessment in both industry and athletics by using exoskeletons and worn sensors to provide important data related to performance and the effects of risk-related activities on athletes and workers
Summary
Wearable technologies are emerging as a useful tool with many different applications While these devices are worn on the human body and can capture numerous data types, this literature review focuses on wearable use for performance enhancement and risk assessment in industrialand sports-related biomechanical applications. Introduction with regard to jurisdictional claims in Wearable technologies are a growing are of interest due to their potential benefits for biological feedback data collection through non-invasive monitoring of users These devices can be used in several biofeedback applications, including: physiological (e.g., heart rate), neurological (e.g., brain-wave), biochemical (e.g., metabolites), and bio-mechanical (e.g., joint angles; [1]). Industry workers that engage in physical activities are often considered “industrial athletes” [2,3] These are individuals who experience repetitive motion tasks in occupational settings such as in manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, and other service industries.
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