Technologies Applied for Elbow Joint Angle Measurements: A Systematic Review

The measurement of joint angles is an important indicator of its functional state and for clinical diagnoses. Joint angle assessment techniques can be applied to improve sports performance and provide treatment and rehabilitation information. Recently, several sensors have been designed to detect movements of the human body. In this sense, a systematic review was carried out based on studies from the period of 2014 to 2019. The sources of research were the following databases: Capes Journals, IEEE Xplore and PubMed, in which 44 publications related to technologies applied for elbow joint angle measurements were selected. Eleven measurement methods were identified, the most used was: IMU sensors, mobile apps and fiber optic sensors. The results show that it is an area in constant expansion, with most of the papers published in recent years and with great potential for development and applications. The benefits of research can go far beyond indicating the sensors most used in the literature, but provide the most suitable for each application. In addition to facilitating the standardization of assessment methods for use in clinical practice. It is worth mentioning that the literature review has identified the main gaps for the development of new research, in addition to direct the main publications related to the study.