Design, Fabrication, and Evaluation of 3D Biopotential Electrodes and Intelligent Garment System for Sports Monitoring

Abstract

This study presents the development and evaluation of an innovative intelligent garment system, incorporating 3D knitted silver biopotential electrodes, designed for long-term sports monitoring. By integrating advanced textile engineering with wearable monitoring technologies, we introduce a novel approach to real-time physiological signal acquisition, focusing on enhancing athletic performance analysis and fatigue detection. Utilizing low-resistance silver fibers, our electrodes demonstrate significantly reduced skin-to-electrode impedance, facilitating improved signal quality and reliability, especially during physical activities. The garment system, embedded with these electrodes, offers a non-invasive, comfortable solution for continuous ECG and EMG monitoring, addressing the limitations of traditional Ag/AgCl electrodes, such as skin irritation and signal degradation over time. Through various experimentation, including impedance measurements and biosignal acquisition during cycling activities, we validate the system’s effectiveness in capturing high-quality physiological data. Our findings illustrate the electrodes’ superior performance in both dry and wet conditions. This study not only advances the field of intelligent garments and biopotential monitoring, but also provides valuable insights for the application of intelligent sports wearables in the future.