EMG Mapping Technique for Pinch Meter Robot Extension

Rehabilitation of patients with impaired grip functions involves standard exercise that should be repeated in a predefined sequence. They are aimed to gradually improve patients’ ability to grip and operate objects used in daily life. Rehabilitation robots, employing surface EMG (sEMG) as a diagnostic and feedback signal may be used to support these exercises and trace the rehabilitation progress. However, to properly employ exercise regimen, information about what force should be used to hold and operate various objects is needed. This work is focused on finding the correlation between the value of sEMG signal and the force required to grip a particular object. Calibration plots obtained that way will reduce the need for additional equipment, such as specialized gloves, and at the same time provide information needed for better exercise protocols.