HDE-Array: Development and Validation of a New Dry Electrode Array Design to Acquire HD-sEMG for Hand Position Estimation

IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2024:32:4004-4013. doi: 10.1109/TNSRE.2024.3490796. Epub 2024 Nov 12.

Abstract

This paper aims to introduce HDE-Array (High-Density Electrode Array), a novel dry electrode array for acquiring High-Density surface electromyography (HD-sEMG) for hand position estimation through RPC-Net (Recursive Prosthetic Control Network), a neural network defined in a previous study. We aim to demonstrate the hypothesis that the position estimates returned by RPC-Net using HD-sEMG signals acquired with HDE-Array are as accurate as those obtained from signals acquired with gel electrodes. We compared the results, in terms of precision of hand position estimation by RPC-Net, using signals acquired by traditional gel electrodes and by HDE-Array. As additional validation, we performed a variance analysis to confirm that the presence of only two rows of electrodes does not result in an excessive loss of information, and we characterized the electrode-skin impedance to assess the effects of the voltage divider effect and power line interference. Performance tests indicated that RPC-Net, used with HDE-Array, achieved comparable or superior results to those observed when used with the gel electrode setup. The dry electrodes demonstrated effective performance even with a simplified setup, highlighting potential cost and usability benefits. These results suggest improvements in the accessibility and user-friendliness of upper-limb rehabilitation devices and underscore the potential of HDE-Array and RPC-Net to revolutionize control for medical and non-medical applications.

Publication types

  • Validation Study

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Algorithms
  • Artificial Limbs
  • Electric Impedance
  • Electrodes*
  • Electromyography* / instrumentation
  • Equipment Design*
  • Female
  • Hand* / physiology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Muscle, Skeletal / physiology
  • Neural Networks, Computer
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Young Adult