Development and Validation of a Dry Electrode Array for sEMG Recording and Hand Movement Recognition

Abstract

Surface electromyography (sEMG) signals are an indirect measurement of muscle activity, and their applications range from biomechanics to control and rehabilitation. Hand movement recognition is a very difficult endeavor due to forearm anatomy. Hence, a multichannel approach for signal acquisition and processing is required. Conventional electrodes can limit the ease-of-use and repeatability of multi-channel sEMG recordings. New techniques have been proposed in this regard, with dry electrodes being one of them. Dry electrode technology has enabled the design of better donning and doffing procedures for multichannel sEMG recording, particularly for rehabilitation and prosthetic applications. However, there is a debate about the quality of the signals recorded with them and their usefulness for the recognition of multiple hand movements. To mitigate these quality issues, this work proposes an array of reusable stainless steel dry electrodes for multichannel sEMG recording with a design that facilitates its positioning on the forearm. The dry electrodes were characterized through electrical impedance measures and a Bland-Altman test. They were found to have similar characteristics to standard, disposable sEMG pre-gelled electrodes. For placement repeatability and application feasibility, an anatomy-based electrode positioning protocol was implemented with 17 healthy subjects and six hand movements. To evaluate the application feasibility of the electrode array, a feed-forward artificial neural network was trained to classify signals from the six movements, with a 97,86±0,58% accuracy. The amplitude of the sEMG signals for two antagonist movements was compared, finding a 24,81% variation. The dry electrode array showed feasibility in acquiring and classifying sEMG signals of hand movements with high accuracy.