Development and Uncertainty Assessment of Low-Cost Portable EMG Acquisition Module

Abstract

Surface electromyography is an important and widely used biomedical measurement technique. In biomedical engineering, obtaining high-quality EMG data and processing it in real-time is challenging. Their calibration repeatability and reliability, on the other hand, remain in discussion. Furthermore, the metrological elements of EMG systems have not yet been studied. In this research work, a portable EMG acquisition module has been developed, and the uncertainty of two EMG characteristics for four everyday hand motions has been investigated. Furthermore, an inter-instrument comparison has been carried out in a controlled environment. For multiple trials, the result has been estimated for 10 people. While designing the experiment, two major uncertainty factors, muscle selection/electrode placement and subjective analysis, have been taken into consideration. The developed system's inter-instrument performance has been found to be similar to that of the existing system (p-value > 0.05). The total uncertainty of the developed system has been found to be in the range of 0.0106–0.0196% (p-value > 0.05) for RMS and 0.1001–0.2084% (p-value > 0.05) for MF. The existing commercial system, in contrast, exhibited uncertainty in the range of 0.0171–0.0359% (p-value > 0.05) for RMS and 0.1010–0.2088% (p-value > 0.05) for MF. The developed EMG acquisition system's performance and cost-effectiveness validate its utility and acceptability for low-cost product development.