2019 International Electronics Symposium (IES)
AT-Mo: Wireless Data Collection System For
Physiology Monitoring of Athlete
Dhodit Rengga Tisna
Politeknik Elektronika Negeri Surabaya (PENS), Indonesia
dhodit@pasca.student.pens.ac.id
Abstract— Monitoring the training load in athletes is very
important to avoid excessive fatigue or even injury. At this
time the results of monitoring data are still manual, written on
paper. So if you need data at any time you have to find the
measurement results file. AT-MO is a term for Athletes
Monitoring, to determine the physiological conditions of
athletes.The goal of this paper is to create a monitoring system
to determine the athlete's physiological response when given
training treatment.This work presents a system that can be
used to collect, store and evaluate physiological data in athletes
during physical training. This system is designed to receive
heart rate sensor data and oxygen saturation. The Pulse
Oximetry sensor is used in hardware that is connected to the E-
Health Shield and Arduino Microcontroller for data
acquisition, as well as the use of Nodemcu to send data to the
cloud via the internet network. Physiological conditions after
treatment will be measured, then the set of physiological data
will be stored in the cloud. Physiological condition
measurement data that is heart rate and oxygen saturation that
has been stored in the cloud will be displayed to users in
graphical form. This system collects and stores physiological
data from individuals by utilizing the Thingspeak IOT
Platform. By using the visualization application at thingspeak,
data is displayed in graphical form.
Keywords— Pulse Oximetry Sensor, Physiological, E-Health
Shield, Arduino, Thingspeak
I. INTRODUCTION
An athlete's achievements are greatly influenced by
the performance of the athlete himself when competing in
the field, a good performance will certainly produce quality
athletes who can compete with other athletes from abroad.
Achieving this performance cannot be separated from
routine exercises and appropriate treatments to improve
performance.
Monitoring responses and physiological conditions
for training and other stressors is very important to apply
favorite routines and achieve optimal performance.
Harmonious interactions between high training loads and
appropriate recovery strategies are key elements for elite
athletes to perform optimally. In addition to health
conditions, the thing that is also very important to note is
the athlete's fitness condition itself. Where the athlete's
fitness condition will affect the performance when the
athlete competes in the field. Determination of the portion
of training in accordance with athletes is something that
must be known by training, because each individual has a
different immune system. With portions that match each
individual's endurance characteristics, training is expected
to have a positive effect on the athlete's performance.
Therefore, to ensure that certain training plans are optimal
978-1-7281-4449-8/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
M. Udin Harun Al Rasyid, Sritrusta Sukaridhoto
Politeknik Elektronika Negeri Surabaya (PENS), Indonesia
udinharun, dhoto{@pens.ac.id}
for athletes' performance and well-being, the athlete's
response to the training process must be considered so as
not to exceed the body's workload [1].
Player fatigue can be measured from the condition of
lactic acid in the blood. Lactic acid produced during this
process then accumulates in the blood and muscles and
results in fatigue in the player. When lactic acid begins to
accumulate in large amounts in the muscles of the player, it
can damage tissue in the muscles that cannot be repaired.
This shows that these parameters are very important to
measure to ensure better player performance and health
during matches and training session [1] . For swimmers
and cyclists, monitoring sleep conditions, resting heart rate
and oxygen saturation in the blood are also needed to
monitor athlete's condition and to measure training load
[2].
At this time recording the results of monitoring data is
still manual using paper. So if at any time you need the data,
you should look for hard files from the monitoring results. In
addition to recording on paper, file storage becomes less
efficient and easily lost or scattered. AT-MO is a designation
for the athlete's physiological condition monitoring system
created in this study. The goal of this research is to determine
the athlete's physiological response after treatment training is
given. It is hoped that this device can assist trainers in
planning the training load that will be given to athletes to get
maximum performance. In this research, monitoring of
monitoring results is based on the Internet of Things and data
storage by utilizing the Thingspeak platform. Physiological
data will be collected through devices used such as heart rate
and oxygen saturation, this data is expected to be used as
material for evaluation by the trainer.
II. RELATED WORK
Several studies have been conducted related to
monitoring physiological conditions using a wireless body
area network sensor. Zulkifli et al. [3] presented a portable
wireless physiological data monitoring system, this system
uses Garmin Heart Rate to collect user heart rate data with
XBee wireless real-time network-based monitoring. To
show network results using LabView software. The monitor
will see the heart rate received by the coordinator of two
different heart rate straps.
Malhi et al. [4] developed non-invasive physiological
parameter monitoring devices using Zigbee with sensors
placed at one fingertip, to monitor the condition of parents
living alone. Where the indicators used for monitoring are
heart rate, temperature and impact to detect the condition of
the individual which is possible when symptoms of stroke
and fall occur.
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 Ahmed et al. [5] presented monitoring vital human
physiological parameters using single-on-chip Hardware/ IOT
microcontroller (SoC) hardware in the form of arduino Embedded INTERNET Platform
lilypad capable of connecting sensors, bluetooth and power System
supplies in the form of lithium batteries. Fiological
monitoring with parameters of heart rate and body
temperature makes use of data base facilities in the cloud for Fig. 1. General scheme IoT.
data storage. Then with the android application's graphical
interface, it is possible to access information on The system design as shown in Figure 2 consists of
physiological parameters remotely. hardware in the form of sensors mounted on a person's
Blechman et al. [6] the development of a system to body, then sending sensor data with transmission media in
monitor oxygen saturation in a person's blood by utilizing a the form of wireless through the internet to the cloud server.
non-invasive sensor in the form of pulse oximetry. Then Furthermore, the data available on the cloud server can be
from the results of oxygen saturation monitoring the accessed by users through an Android device.
conditions are determined with low, medium or high levels.
The device uses data transmission media in the form of
bluetooth to provide information to users with a graphical
interface on an android application.
Garcia et al. [7] provided and evaluate the system to
facilitate communication between athletes and coaches.
Where someone's physiological data is collected by several
sensors, then the system on the platform will make
standardization, then the data will be sent in the cloud for
processing.
Rasyid et al. [8] developed of portable spirometer
devices using MPX5100DP sensors. Where the spirometer
will produce Forced Vital Capacity (FVC), then the
measurement data will be sent to the smartphone android via
a bluetooth connection. The measurement data is then used Fig. 2. System Design.
to determine whether the person is affected by Chronic
A. Detail of the sensor
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) or not. The
measurement data besides being stored on the smartphone In this application the pulse oximetry sensor is
will also be sent to the server as data that will be used by the connected to the E-Health Shield to monitor the
expert doctor to be analyzed and as a reference to determine physiological parameters of the body, namely heart rate and
the patient's condition. oxygen saturation in the blood. Monitor heart rate and
Rasyid et al. [9] muscle tension monitoring system using oxygen saturation to detect heart rates according to the
the Electromyogram sensor. Data from the Electromyogram ability of each individual. This is important, because to
sensor will be sent to the Android application on the anticipate the occurrence of injury or even death due to heart
smartphone using a WiFi signal. Android applications on rate conditions that work too fast beyond the ability of each
users will display monitoring data in realtime and also the individual's body.
history of monitoring results.
In this system it is proposed to monitor the athlete's
physiological response after being given training treatment
using pulse oximetry sensors. In this study combining two
variables to determine the condition of heart rate and
oxygen saturation in athletes when doing exercises related to
the cloud database platform. Monitoring is carried out in
realtime during the training and visualization can be seen
from any location by accessing via the internet using an
application on a smartphone.
III. SYSTEM DESIGN
Fig. 3. Pulse Oximetry Sensor.
In Figure 1 is the paradigm of the Internet of Things and
the use of eHealth in information technology. In this Pulse oxymetri shown in Figure 3. Pulse Oximetry is a
experiment we will develop heart rate data transfer and non-invasive method to show functional hemoglobin arterial
oxygen saturation for further processing by using matlab oxygen saturation. It can be said that oxygen saturation is
processing tools that are available on the IoT Thingspeak the amount of oxygen dissolved in blood that flows in
platform to display heart rate and oxygen saturation data arteries. Pulse oximetry utilizes the infrared spectrum to
that have been taken in real time. measure HbO2 and Hb conditions based on light waves.
Deoxygenated and oxygenated hemoglobin absorbs various
wavelengths. Furthermore, the results of the light wave

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readings will be processed by the microprocessor to convert
the deoxygenated and oxygenated wave differences into
digital values of oxygen saturation and heart rate.
The pulse oximetry sensor connected to the E-Health
Shield is then connected to the Arduino Uno microcontroller
as a medium for reading and data acquisition. E-Health
shield is shown in Figure 4.
Fig. 4. E-Health Sensor Platform.
B. Arduino Uno
The Arduino Uno board shown in Figure 5 is used in this
project. Arduino Uno uses the brain to process the input in
the form of ATMEL ATMEGA328P, where the
microcontroller requires 5 Volts of power to work. This
microcontroller has specifications with a capacity of 32 KB
for flash memory with SRAM of 2 KB and 1 KB EEPROM.
The clock speed is 16 MHz, which executes about 300,000
lines of C source code per second. The board has 14 digital
I/O pins and 6 analog input pins. Arduino Uno can be
supplied by using power from USB or external power in the
form of a battery or DC power supply. Arduino Uno can be
supplied with an external supply of 6 to 20 Volts, whereas
the recommended range for supplying power from external
to Arduino is 7 to 12 Volts. If the supply is less than 7
Volts, it is possible that Arduino is unstable, whereas if the
supply is more than 12 Volts, the regulator will heat up
quickly. The resources for Arduino Uno can be selected
automatically.
Fig. 5. Arduino Board.
In Arduino Uno provides a serial port that is used to
communicate with other devices such as Rasberry Pi, or
other microcontrollers. The serial port for communicating
with other devices on ArduinoUno is on Digital pin 0 as Rx
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and Digital pin 1 as Tx. The Arduino software includes a
serial monitor for sending / receiving textual data to and
from the Arduino board. The RX and TX LEDs on the board
will flash when data is being sent via a USB to-serial chip
and a USB connection to the computer. Arduino Uno can be
programmed using the Arduino IDE which can be
downloaded for free and easily. In addition Atmega328 on
Arduino has been equipped with a bootloader, so no
additional hardware is needed to be able to upload programs
to ATMEGA328. Arduino Uno has an additional fuse to
protect the computer's USB port from short-circuit or over-
current.
C. NodeMCU
Nodemcu is a microcontroller device that is often used
to build an IoT system. The nodemcu consists of hardware
in the form of ESP8266 which is the production hardware of
the Esperessif System. Besides ESP8266 on the nodemcu
board it also consists of ADC (Analog to Digital Converter)
pins, IIC and PWM (Pulse Width Modulation). Nodemcu is
often used on IoT systems in addition to small and simple
devices, also because it has a wifi facility as an intermediary
for sending input data from sensors. Nodemcu is shown in
Figure 6.
Fig. 6. Nodemcu.
D. Thingspeak IOT Plattform
Data collected from sensor oximetry is stored in the
cloud. The cloud used for this purpose is
ThingSpeak.Thingspeak is an Internet of Things server that
is quite popular because of its easy configuration, to start
Thingspeak we must first create an account on that server
with the email address that we have. After getting an
account on the server, then the next step is to set the
dashboard or initial display with our device that will be used
to send data. Thingspeak allows the creation of channels that
can be used to store data related to a project. Display graphs
with data collected and provide an efficient way to analyze
and monitor interesting data. Reading and writing API keys
are generated for each channel where data can be read from
or written to the channel. ThingSpeak also facilitates the use
of the Matlab function by integrating Matlab from
MathWorks in it. This eliminates the need to purchase the
Matlab license from MathWorks. To use the ThingSpeak
service, it is necessary to have an account in it.
IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
When the IoT hardware circuit is activated, the Pulse
Oximetry sensor measures the heart rate and oxygen
saturation level. The Pulse Oximetry sensor is placed at the
tip of the finger, then the recorded heart rate and oxygen
saturation will be sent to the E-Healh Shield which is
directly connected via a serial connection to the Arduino
Uno module. The implementation of the pulse at the
fingertips is shown in Figure 7.
Fig. 7. Pulse Oximetry implementation.
To see the heart rate data and oxygen saturation received
by the serial monitor microcontroller, the code is uploaded
to Arduino Uno. The USB output uses the Arduino IDE
serial shown in Figure 8.
Fig. 8. Arduino serial output.
Furthermore, data from Arduino Uno is sent to
Nodemcu, then Nodemcu will be tasked to transfer the data
to the IoT platform via the internet network.
Heart rate and oxygen saturation collected from sensors
are sent to the cloud using the Thingspeak channel.
Thingspeak will collect data values from various sensors
used in the system. Furthermore, heart rate data and oxygen
saturation will be visualized through a private channel at
Thingspeak. Application Visualization of thingspeak will
visualize the values that have been measured and recorded.
Display of data visualization on Thingspeak is shown in
Figure 9.
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Fig. 9. Thingspeak data visualization.
The collected data will be stored in the cloud safely to be
used as a reference in the future. Data that has been stored in
the cloud can be imported anytime and from anywhere. Data
can be imported in the form of csv or json files. Data
collected from all sensors stored at Thingspeak is as shown
in Figure 10.
Fig. 10. Export Data.
Figure 10 is the result of export data that has been stored
in the form of CSV, which consists of data date fields, data
numbers, field 1 and field 2. Field 1 is a collection of heart
rate values while field 2 is the value of oxygen saturation.
V. CONCLUSION
In this study a system was developed to monitor the
physiological condition of athletes after receiving treatment
in training. This physiological condition as a reference to
determine the athlete's body response to the portion of
exercise that has been given, but also to determine the
portion of the exercise to be given next. The developed
prototype collects data using sensors and microcontrollers
while sending data to a database in the cloud using nodemcu
with wireless transmission media over the internet network.
Then save data using the cloud and present it in graphical
form. Charts are presented based on an evaluation of the data
collected, which allows real-time follow-up of the activities
tested on individuals.
Future work will include adding more sensors to the
device to monitor more body parameters, such as respiration,
muscle tension and blood pressure. In addition, we also hope
to monitor more people at the same time in future designs.
What's more, it is necessary to use intelligent arithmetic to
build a body diagnosis model, which can provide
conclusions of the exact diagnosis of the person being tested
based on the data detected automatically. Fuzzy methods
using Matlab may be used to determine the level of fatigue of
an athlete based on the input of the results of the athlete's
physiological readings.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was supported in part by Ministry of
Research, Technology and Higher Education of Indonesia,
under scheme ‘Penelitian Terapan Unggulan Perguruan
Tinggi (PTUPT)’, Grant No. T/140/E3/RA.00/2019.
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