The design of current electromyography (EMG) systems focuses on specific applications. One design focuses on the use of bipolar electrodes to monitor a single muscle group. Several of these electrodes can then be used to monitor different muscles on the body simultaneously. Another design places many electrodes in an array on a limb or over a single muscle. One cannot be used for the other. Additionally the design of an EMG system must account for several sources of noise that can be orders of magnitude larger than the EMG signal itself.
The goal of this work was to design an active EMG electrode that could be used as bipolar electrodes or in an electrode array. Two electrodes were designed and tested. One design only worked in bipolar and the other did not possess the desired noise immunity. Explanations to the behavior of the electrodes are presented along with possible modifications the the electrodes to achieve the desired performance. / Master of Science / Electromyography or EMG is the measurement of the electrical activity produced by muscles when moving or lifting. These measurements are taken by metal electrodes placed on the surface of the skin. To properly measure the electrical activity precise measurement circuits have to be used and steps have to be taken to reduce any interference.
EMG systems are typically setup in one of two layouts. The first layout is a few electrodes are used to monitor a muscle but many different muscles can be monitored simultaneously. The second is to place many electrodes that are close to each other to monitor a single muscle. In either layout there are many types of interference that can effect the data and must be accounted for in the systems design.
In this work two electrodes were designed. The goal was to produce an electrode that would function in either layout. After testing both of the electrodes it was determined that both of the electrodes work but not as well as desired. Several future steps and design modifications are presented.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/78693 |
| Date | 10 August 2017 |
| Creators | Peterson, Andrew Jay II |
| Contributors | Electrical and Computer Engineering, Stilwell, Daniel J., Asbeck, Alan T., Baumann, William T. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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