Self-powered piezoelectric-biosensing textiles for the physiological monitoring and time-motion analysis of individual sports have been developed. The material system is composed of tetrapod-shaped ZnO nanowires on common textiles. The mechanism is based on the coupling of enzymatic reaction (LOx and lactate) and piezoelectric effect. After conformably attaching the device to the athlete, the device can monitor in real-time the moving speed, frequency, joint angle, and sweat lactate concentration of the athlete. The whole monitoring/analysis process is battery-free. The motor skills and physiological state of two athletes are investigated using the textiles, and different lactate threshold times and maximum lactate release capacities have been obtained. This technique can help them develop distinct training programs. This research is a new direction for the scientific monitoring of kinematics and may also stimulate the development of self-powered wearable sports-related systems.

Self-powered piezoelectric sensor can achieve real-time and harmless monitoring of motion processes without external power supply, which can be attached on body skin or joints to detect human motion and powered by mechanical energy. Here, a sensor for monitoring emergent motion is developed using the PVDF as active material and piezoelectric output as sensing signal. The multi-point control function enables the sensor to monitor the sequence of force order, angle change, and motion frequency of the “elbow lift, arm extension, and wrist compression” during shooting basketball. In addition, the sensor shows can simultaneously charge the capacitor to provide more power for intelligence, typically Bluetooth transmission. The sensor shows good performance in other field, such as rehabilitation monitoring and speech input systems. Therefore, the emerging application of flexible sensors have huge long-term prospects in sport big data collection and Internet of Things (IoT).

Human skin, the body’s largest organ, plays a crucial role in perceiving mechanical stimulation and facilitating interaction with the external environment. Leveraging the unique attributes of human skin, electronic skin technology aimed at replicating and surpassing the capabilities of natural skin holds significant promise across various domains, including medical care, motion tracking, and intelligent robotics. In recent research, triboelectric nanogenerators have emerged as a compelling solution for addressing the energy challenge in electronic skins. Triboelectric nanogenerators harness the combination of the triboelectric effect and electrostatic induction to efficiently convert mechanical energy into electrical power, serving as self-powered sensors for electronic skins, which possess the advantages of self-powered operation, cost-effectiveness, and compatibility with a wide range of materials. This review provides an introduction to the working principles and the four operational modes of triboelectric nanogenerators, highlighting the functional features of electronic skins, such as stretchability, self-healing, and degradability. The primary focus is on the current applications of self-powered electronic skins based on triboelectric nanogenerators in medical care, motion tracking, and machine tactile recognition. This review concludes by discussing the anticipated challenges in the future development of self-powered electronic skins based on triboelectric nanogenerators. This review holds practical significance for advancing the practical use of self-powered electronic skins based on triboelectric nanogenerators and offers valuable guidance for individuals interested in pursuing scientific and healthy endeavors.

The rapid development of the fifth generation technology poses more challenges in the human motion inspection field. In this study, a nanogenerator, made by PVDF, ionic hydrogel, and PDMS, is used. Furthermore, a transparent, stretchable, and biocompatible PENG (TSB-PENG) is presented, which can be used as a self-powered sensor attached to the athlete’s joints, which helps to monitor the training and improve the subject’s performance. This device shows the ability to maintain a relatively stable output, under various external environments (e.g., inorganic salt, organic matter and temperature). Additionally, TSB-PENG can supply power to small-scale electronic equipment, such as Bluetooth transmitting motion data in real time. This study can provide a new approach to designing lossless, real-time, portable, and durable self-powered sensors in the sports motoring field.

The advent of self-powered arrays of tribological nanogenerators (TENGs) that harvest mechanical energy for data collection has ushered in a promising avenue for human motion monitoring. This emerging trend is poised to shape the future landscape of biomechanical study. However, when we try to monitor various regions of the foot across disparate environments simultaneously, it poses a number of problems, such as the lack of satisfactory waterproofing, suboptimal heat resistance, inaccurate monitoring capacity, and the inability to transmit data wirelessly. To overcome these issues, we have developed an array of sensors affixed to the insole’s surface to adeptly monitor movement gait patterns and alert users to falls using self-powered triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). Each sensor cell on this sensor works as an individual air gap TENG (FWF-TENG), namely flexible, waterproof, and fast response, composed of an Ecoflex single-electrode array. Each FWF-TENG boasts a fast response time of 28 ms, which is sufficient to quickly monitor pressure changes during various badminton activities. Importantly, these sensors can persistently generate electrical signals at 70%RH humidity. Data obtained from these sensors can be transmitted to an upper computer intelligent terminal wirelessly through multi-grouped FHW-ENG sensing terminals in real time to achieve human–computer interaction applications, including motion technical determinations, feedback, and fall alerts. As a result, the interconnected TENG arrays have broad potential applications, including gait rehabilitation monitoring, motion technique identification, and fall alarm applications.

The rapid development of wearable electronic devices (such as in applications for health care monitoring, intelligent sports, and human–computer interaction) has led to a huge demand for sustainable energy. However, the existing equipment cannot meet the requirements of energy harvesting, wearable sensing, and environmental protection concurrently. Herein, by an environmentally friendly in situ gap-generation method and doping technology, we have manufactured an Ecoflex–PVDF composite material as a negative triboelectric layer and used gas as a support layer for the triboelectric nanogenerator (EPGS-TENG). The device has excellent electrical output performance and working stability (pressure sensitivity of 7.57 V/N, angle response capacity of 374%, output power of 121 μW, temperature adaptability from 20 °C to 40 °C, durability over 3 h, and stability of 10 days). EPGS-TENG can meet the requirements of biomechanical energy collection and wearable self-powered sensing simultaneously. EPGS-TENG shows great application potential for the new generation of wearable devices.