Hydration management system for sports and health care applications – Test bench development and field study in endurance athletes

Abstract Adequate fluid intake is essential for all individuals, particularly in sports and healthcare settings. The development of an intelligent hydration management system that enables the determination of drinking volume while also incorporating vital and environmental parameters to give individual drinking recommendations could provide significant support in this context. As an intermediate step, this work presents the development of a test bench that enables the simulation of human tube-based drinking, allowing automated testing of sensor systems for drinking volume determination. In addition, a field study with runners was conducted to analyze drinking behavior and its influence on physiological parameters under conditions of physical exertion.