Acquisition of sEMG Signals During Human Ankle Movement

–This paper is concerned with studying human ankle movement based on surface electromyographic(sEMG) signals. The sEMG signals were collected from muscles of normal subjects when they moved their ankle flexion-extension. Two types of movement were designed including bending and extending. Analysis of sEMG(surface electromyogram) centered on two features; magnitude of activation & the degree of similarity of the sEMG distribution. sEMG is the technique for measuring levels of muscle activity. When a muscle contracts, electrical activity generated as action potentials propagate along the muscle fibers. There are two types of Surface EMG (SEMG)-Static scanning SEMG and Dynamic SEMG. In Dynamic SEMG, electrodes are attached to the skin and muscle activity is measured and graphed as the patient moves through various ranges of motion. The sEMG signals picked up during the muscle activity are interfaced with a PC system via cRIO for EMG acquisition. The acquired signals were processed and analyzed using filtering techniques. The results showed a marked variation in the amplitude level of EMG as the subject’s ankle pace changed.