Persimmon: Smart patches for future IoT in sports and health care
In this project we are developing biodegradable, multimodal smart patches for decentralized personal health monitoring, combining novel sensor materials, additive manufacturing, and circular electronics to enable sustainable sport and healthcare.
About
PERSIMMON aims to revolutionize decentralized personal health monitoring (DPHM) by developing a new generation of sustainable, multimodal smart sensor patches organized in a high-bandwidth bodyNET. The project responds to two urgent societal challenges: the need for continuous, personalized health monitoring and the rapidly growing environmental footprint of disposable electronic devices.
Today’s commercial smart patches typically consist of rigid multiuse modules mounted on flexible substrates, offering limited sensing capabilities and low modality. PERSIMMON goes beyond the state of the art by developing thin, soft, and compliant smart patches with biodegradable printed wire boards (PWBs), novel sensor materials, and reusable electronic modules. These patches will form multinodal, multimodal bodyNET systems capable of advanced physiological monitoring in real-life conditions.
At the same time, PERSIMMON introduces a circular technology platform based on water-soluble biopolymers, recyclable liquid metal interconnects, and energy-efficient recovery processes. The project contributes to European ambitions under the Net-Zero Industry Act, the Critical Raw Materials Act, and the AI Act by combining clean materials, sustainable manufacturing, and edge-AI for reduced carbon footprint.
By building on European strengths in clean- and health-tech, PERSIMMON aims to deliver personalized, affordable, and environmentally responsible smart patches for applications ranging from elite sports performance to chronic disease management and elderly care.
Objectives
The overall objective of PERSIMMON is to develop sustainable, circular, and high-performance smart sensor patches for decentralized personal health monitoring.
The project is structured around four main specific objectives:
1. Sustainable and Biodegradable Smart Patch Platforms
Develop soft and compliant biodegradable printed wire boards (PWBs) using gelatine-based and other biopolymers, enabling circular economy solutions with up to 90% reduced environmental impact compared to current commercial patches.
2. Multimodal bodyNET for Advanced Health Monitoring
Design and validate multinodal bodyNET systems integrating multimodal sensors (e.g., ECG, EMG, PPG, nano-MOS, bioimpedance, IMU, temperature, strain) supported by edge-AI for reduced motion artefacts, efficient data handling, and low power consumption.
3. Secure and High-Bandwidth Data Communication
Implement safe and secure intra-body communication via Fat-IBC and a 5G gateway, ensuring GDPR-compliant biometric authentication and high-rate data transfer for cloud-based analytics.
4. AI-Enhanced Physiological Monitoring
Develop AI-based multimodal data fusion methods for accurate body temperature and cuffless blood pressure monitoring, enabling reliable real-time health assessment under dynamic conditions.
Together, these objectives push the technological readiness of biodegradable smart patches from laboratory validation toward real-world application.
Project Partners
PERSIMMON brings together 13 partners from six European countries, combining expertise in materials science, electronics manufacturing, AI, health technology, recycling, and socio-technical research.
Coordinator:
- Uppsala University (SE)
Academic partners:
- Johannes Kepler University Linz (AT)
- Università di Torino / Politecnico di Torino (IT)
- University of Ljubljana (SI)
Research and technology organizations:
- TNO (NL)
- Fondazione LINKS (IT)
Industrial partners:
- STMicroelectronics (IT)
- Mycronic AB (SE)
- Beneli AB (SE)
- Evalan BV (NL)
- MySphera SL (ES)
- DF Elettronica SRL (IT)
- Warrant Hub SPA (IT)
Together, the consortium combines advanced materials research, industrial-scale manufacturing capabilities, AI development, secure communication technologies, recycling expertise, and socio-technical implementation research to deliver a fully integrated and sustainable bodyNET platform.