Discrimination of Motions with Physical Deformation of Muscles and EMG

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the basic upper-limb involved in products manipulation. Upper-limb muscular deformations and electromyography (EMG) measurements are used as indexes for estimated motion: hand opening and closing, wrist extending and flexing, pronation and supination, grasping conditions. Measured values are analyzed by multivariate analysis and a regression equation is obtained for estimating the characteristics of upper-limb performance. Muscular deformation is defined as a change in shape, such as a pressure changes when the hand or wrist moves. hand opening and closing can be discriminated at a higher percentage of accuracy by muscular deformation data than by EMG data. Muscular deformation measurements using air-pack pressure sensors were verified to be effective in motion estimation applications.