sEMG Signal Acquisition Strategy towards Hand FES Control

Due to damage of the nervous system, patients experience impediments in their daily life: severe fatigue, tremor or impaired hand dexterity, hemiparesis, or hemiplegia. Surface electromyography (sEMG) signal analysis is used to identify motion; however, standardization of electrode placement and classification of sEMG patterns are major challenges. This paper describes a technique used to acquire sEMG signals for five hand motion patterns from six able-bodied subjects using an array of recording and stimulation electrodes placed on the forearm and its effects over functional electrical stimulation (FES) and volitional sEMG combinations, in order to eventually control a sEMG-driven FES neuroprosthesis for upper limb rehabilitation. A two-part protocol was performed. First, personalized templates to place eight sEMG bipolar channels were designed; with these data, a universal template, called forearm electrode set (FELT), was built. Second, volitional and evoked movements were recorded during FES application. 95% classification accuracy was achieved using two sessions per movement. With the FELT, it was possible to perform FES and sEMG recordings simultaneously. Also, it was possible to extract the volitional and evoked sEMG from the raw signal, which is highly important for closed-loop FES control.