Design of a portable 32-channel semg-imu sensor system for the assessment of upper limbs' movements in daily living

Surface electromyography (sEMG) and inertial measurement units (IMU) are not established in the home environment as remote measurement systems due to difficulties associated with an intuitive and user-friendly applicability. Hence, a new sEMG-IMU sensor system was developed which consists of two armbands for positioning on the upper and lower arm. This system is easy-to-use and able to measure the muscular activity of the lower and upper arm muscles simultaneously. Furthermore, the two IMUs provide several opportunities to assess the movement of the upper limb. Tests with four healthy subjects showed that the sEMG signal quality of the system developed compares well with commercial systems using gel electrodes and that the system can be independently applied by the user.