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An EMG-based muscle force monitoring system

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Abstract

Information about muscle forces helps us to understand human movements more completely. Recently, studies on estimating muscle forces in real-time have been directed forward; however, the previous studies have some limitations in terms of using a three-dimensional (3D) motion capture system to obtain human movements. In the present study, an electromyography (EMG)-based real-time muscle force estimation system, which is available for a variety of potential applications, was introduced with electrogoniometers. A pilot study was conducted by performing 3D motion analysis on ten subjects during sit-to-stand movement. EMG measurements were simultaneously performed on gastrocnemius medialis and tibialis anterior. To evaluate the developed system, the results from the developed system were compared with those from widely used commercially available off-line simulation software including a musculoskeletal model. Results showed that good correlation coefficients between muscle forces from the developed system and the off-line simulation were observed in gastrocnemius medialis (r = 0.718, p < 0.01) and tibialis anterior (r = 0.821, p < 0.01). However, muscle lengths and muscle forces were obtained with a maximum delay of about 100 ms. Further studies would be required to solve the delay limitation. The developed system yielded promising results, suggesting that it can be potentially used for the real-time diagnosis of muscle or interpretation of movements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering & Institute of Medical Engineering, Yonsei University, Wonju, 220-710, Korea

    Jongsang Son, Sungjae Hwang & Youngho Kim

Authors
  1. Jongsang Son
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  2. Sungjae Hwang
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  3. Youngho Kim
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Youngho Kim.

Additional information

This paper was recommended for publication in revised form by Associate Editor Yoon Hyuk Kim

Jongsang Son received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Yonsei University in 2007 and 2009, respectively. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Yonsei University, Korea. His research interests are in the area of Neuro-Musculoskeletal Modeling and Computer Simulation.

Sungjae Hwang received a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Yonsei University in 2003, 2005 and 2010, respectively. He is currently a Ph.D. in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Yonsei University and a researcher in Institute of Medical Engineering at Yonsei University, Korea. His research interests are in the area of 3D Motion Analysis of Human Movement, Rehabilitation Engineering.

Youngho Kim received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Hanyang University in 1982. He then went on to receive his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Iowa in 1989 and 1991, respectively. He is currently a Professor at the School of Biomedical Engineering at Yonsei University, Korea. His research interests are in the area of Human Movement, Rehabilitation Engineering, and Biomechanics.

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Son, J., Hwang, S. & Kim, Y. An EMG-based muscle force monitoring system. J Mech Sci Technol 24, 2099–2105 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-010-0616-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-010-0616-9

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