A multi-sensor coupled supramolecular elastomer empowers intelligent monitoring of human gait and arch health

Supramolecular materials have been considered an innovative material system which provides new perspectives for material innovation in the field of TENG. Here, a supramolecular elastomer (PGE) prepared from polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), glycerin, gelatin and ferric chloride hexahydrate (FeCl 3 ∙6H 2 O) with excellent stretchability and degradability has been reported for human gait and arch health monitoring. The PGE can be used as a strain sensor to monitor the changing angles of multiple joints of the human body (fingers, elbows, knees, ankles) with a response time of 75 ms. Meanwhile, the PGE served as a friction layer can construct a Triboelectric Nanogenerator (PGE-TENG), which is capable of real-time monitoring of different locomotor behaviors and six basic gaits. Combined with machine learning algorithms to develop an intelligent motion monitoring system, it achieves accurate recognition of the health status of human foot arches and walking status of visually impaired people, with recognition accuracies of 97.5 % and 99.6 %. In addition, an intelligent interaction system based on PGE-TENG was developed to provide a new platform for sports enthusiasts working out at home. The multi-sensor coupling technology based on PGE not only realizes high-precision real-time monitoring of human movement, but also opens up new ways in the field of medical and health monitoring, strongly promoting the integration of wearable devices and Internet of Things (IoT) technology.