Separation of Fatigue Content in sEMG Signals Using High Definition Electrodes

SEMG electrodes are applied in numerous studies on muscle fatigue, utilised to detect the fatigue in various muscle groups analysed by a range of feature extraction methods. Newer research are applying multi-channel electrodes with the aim of increasing the quality of the signal emanating from the studied muscle. This research is comparing the use of 4 and 6 multi-channel electrodes to determine the separation between fatigue and non-fatigue segments of the recorded signals from the biceps brachii. Subjects performed isometric biceps brachii arm curl exercises until fatiguing. The signals were analysed using power spectrum density, and the Davies-Bouldin index calculated the separation between the classes. The results show separation was successful for sEMG signals using both 4 and 6 channel electrodes; however, better separation was achieved for signals with 4-channel electrodes.