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Design and characterization of an EMG band for Duchenne patients

Maat, Philip van de (2022) Design and characterization of an EMG band for Duchenne patients.

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Abstract:Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive muscle disease without a cure. Due to muscle degeneration, patients will slowly lose their arm functions. When the arm muscles are too weak to lift the arms, there are still electrical signals present in thesemuscles. These signals can be picked up using sEMG and used to drive an exoskeleton. In this report an sEMG band for the upper armmuscles is designed, 3d printed, and characterized. It can possibly be used to drive an exoskeleton in the future, to giveDMD patients control over their armfunctions again. Some variables are tested to evaluate their effect on the sEMG signal. The infill percentage of the printed electrodes does not influence the signal (sEMG envelope, electrode impedance, signal-to-noise ratio, and standard deviation of impedance), as long as it is above 60 percent. The pressure with which the electrodes are pushed against the skin is not a deciding factor in creating a usable sEMG signal, as long as it is enough to keep the electrodes in their place. Although printable silver ink proves to yield a lower impedance and higher signal-to-noise ratio, it is more fragile than PI-ETPU. Therefore these materials are combined and printed on top of one another. Four different prototypes of an sEMG band are developed and 3d printed. The final version features six electrodes, three on the triceps and three on the biceps. It can be adjusted with a watch band and is made almost entirely with a 3d printer. It can detect signals from both muscle groups. Testing by using the sEMG envelope of the band as the input for a computer game proves the band can be used accurately and quickly as a control system. This accuracy improves when integrating the envelope signal instead of only using the envelope as input. Robotics andMechatronics
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Clients:
Unknown organization, Netherlands
Faculty:EEMCS: Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Programme:Electrical Engineering MSc (60353)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/103657
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