SWeaT - Smart Wearable for Fatigue Tracking

H2020-MSCA-IF-2019 

Start date 15 July 2020
End date 14 July 2022

 

Coordinatore: Paolo Bruschi

MSCA Fellow: Michele Dei

 

Internet-of-Wearables (IoW) is already a reality embodied in commercial products for fitness, such as Fitbit, Apple Watch. These devices record activity data (speed, distance, heart-rate, impact forces) and are connected to the Cloud through Bluetooth enabled access points.

Smart wearables of the next generation of will integrate bio-chemical sensing to capture body dynamics at molecular level and in real time. Sweat, naturally produced by the human body, will enable non-invasive access to rich sets of bio-markers. However, sweat-based IoW devices face many challenges: bio-compatibility, flexibility, durability, data integrity, low-power consumption, lightness in weight and low-cost construction.

SWeaT (Smart Wearable for Fatigue Tracking) will address all these issues and will enable coaches, physicians and trainers to better analyze the performances/fatigue trade-off by real-time monitoring of athletes’ parameters.
To this purpose, SWeaT will develop a low-cost wearable device capable of sensing and recording a full set of relevant electrolytes concentration in sweat, sweat rate and temperature. The device will take advantage of: (i) a custom IC in low-cost CMOS technology to provide early readout and signal digitalization (ii) micro-fluidic paths to properly manage the sweat flow during real-time measurement. A Bluetooth Low Energy module will be embedded in a sport gear to enable lightweight, minimal invasiveness, 10-to-100-meter wireless range communication. SWeaT plans to reach TRL 5 and to develop a Minimum Valuable Product by the end of the action to fully exploit the developed technology.

SWeaT will be implemented at the University of Pisa with a secondment in Barcelona at the Microelectronic Institute. Through SWeaT and its tailored training plan, Dr. Dei will greatly enrich his scientific and soft skills towards his next career challenge.