Electromyography and surface muscle-pressure as measures of lower-limb muscle activities during squatting

Assessment of human lower-limb motions and muscle activities are important for improving ergonomics and performance of wearable robotic devices such as prostheses, orthoses and exoskeletons. Human-machine interface plays an important role to ensure the desired comfort levels of the wearer. Moreover, a growing trend for controlling lower-limb robotic wearables based on muscle activity can be recognized. In that context this paper presents a study on lower-limb muscle behavior using two measures, named surface electromyography (sEMG) and surface muscle pressure (SMP). The study was performed during squatting and include statistical data of ten young healthy male subjects. The key lower-limb muscles, such as quadriceps, hamstrings and calf muscles were studied using both sEMG and SMP measures. These results would help for designing ergonomically efficient lower-limb wearables and provide useful insight for developing new and improved control strategies for bionic devices.