Development of compact pressing system for muscle activity evaluation in force myography

Abstract

Muscle activities are usually evaluated as the subjects of motion analysis in human performance surveys. Force-myography (FMG), which has a similar objective to electromyography, has been proposed and applied in motion analysis. Contact pressure sensors were adopted to construct the FMG device, designed for measuring muscular activities in motion. The essential factors for the detection of FMG are changes in the thickness and hardness of muscles during motion with muscle activity. This study proposed a simple structure, which is applicable as an FMG sensor, to selectively measure the hardness changes attributable to muscle activity. In addition, compact FMG sensors were manufactured by focusing on the hardness measurements by means of pressure sensing. Sensor characteristics in the dumbbell curl posture and walking motion were investigated, and some applications were provided in this study. The changes in hardness expressed the variations in muscle activity of these motions. The usability and availability of the sensor unit were confirmed in the experiments focused on muscle activity.