Distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyography signal acquisition system

Abstract

Provided is a distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyography signal acquisition system, comprising an electromyography signal acquisition device, an electromyography signal acquisition base station, and an upper computer. The electromyography signal acquisition device comprises a signal acquisition board consisting of 8 pieces of 8-channel signal acquisition chips and a right leg drive circuit. All negative electrode channels of the signal acquisition chips are shorted together and connected to a reference electrode. All positive electrode channels of the signal acquisition chips are connected to a flexible electrode by means of a flexible electrode interface to acquire electromyography signals in real time. The average voltage of input signals from all positive electrode channels of the signal acquisition chips is input into the right leg drive circuit, and after being inverted by an inverting amplifier within the right leg drive circuit, the signals are output to the flexible electrode.

Description

A distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the China Patent Office on February 2, 2024, with application number 202410153085.0 and invention name “A Distributed Wearable Matrix High-Density Electromyographic Signal Acquisition System”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the technical field of electromyographic signal acquisition, and in particular to a distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system. Background Art

[0003] High-density electromyography is a multi-dimensional time series signal of voltage changes obtained by guiding, amplifying, recording and displaying the bioelectric changes generated by the activity of single or multiple muscle cells or part of muscle tissue. It can very accurately reflect the state of movement of the human nervous, skeletal and muscle systems.

[0004] High-density EMG collects array-type surface EMG signals, which can convert traditional single-point or two-point EMG signal detection into surface detection, and use medical signal processing technology to comprehensively process the collected signals. Due to the use of array-type surface electrodes, its number of channels is dozens of times more than the single-channel or dual-channel traditional surface EMG signals, which can more comprehensively record the electrical signals of the muscles at the measured location and retain the muscle activity information contained in the electrical signals to the greatest extent. In addition, methods such as independent component analysis and deconvolution can be used to decompose multi-channel high-density EMG signals into the microscopic discharge behavior of individual neurons, so as to observe the discharge of individual neurons and apply them to scenarios such as human-computer interaction, sports injury analysis, and muscle fatigue monitoring.

[0005] High-density EMG acquisition systems are widely used in fields such as sports science, medical physiology research, medical-engineering intersections, human-machine ergonomics, ergonomics, rehabilitation medicine, and human-computer interaction. High-density EMG is becoming a major focus of future EMG research. Traditional high-density EMG signal acquisition systems typically consist of a single high-density (up to 64 channels) EMG acquisition device and simple acquisition software. In some application scenarios, such as whole-body movement monitoring involving the upper and lower limbs and torso, all muscle groups in different body positions of the subject need to be monitored. Because each 64-channel high-density EMG electrode can only monitor one muscle, and the monitoring device cannot interfere with the subject's normal movements, multiple collectors need to be fixed to various body locations wirelessly, rather than wired like desktop devices.

[0006] Using a high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system to directly increase the number of collectors cannot synchronize time during offline testing, resulting in inconsistent sampling time and inability to synchronize the sampling data of each collector. It cannot be used in usage scenarios with high synchronization requirements, such as measuring the burst time of multiple muscle groups. Summary of the Invention

[0007] Based on this, the purpose of this application is to provide a distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system.

[0008] To achieve the above objectives, the present application provides a distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system, comprising: an electromyographic signal collector, an electromyographic signal acquisition base station and a host computer; the electromyographic signal collector is connected to a flexible electrode and fixed to the position of a muscle to be measured on the human body, and is used to collect, process, store and send high-density electromyographic signals in real time; the electromyographic signal acquisition base station is connected to the electromyographic signal collector and the host computer respectively; the electromyographic signal acquisition base station is used to read, configure, synchronize time and eject the status and data of the electromyographic signal collector according to the instructions issued by the host computer, and transmit the high-density electromyographic signals collected and stored offline by the electromyographic signal collector to the host computer; the host computer is used to manage and configure the electromyographic signal collector, and to receive, store and process the high-density electromyographic signals uploaded in real time;

[0009] The electromyographic signal collector includes a signal acquisition board, which consists of 8 8-channel signal acquisition chips and a right leg drive circuit; the negative channels of all signal acquisition chips are short-circuited together and connected to the reference electrode, and the positive channels of all signal acquisition chips are connected to the flexible electrode through a flexible electrode interface to collect high-density electromyographic signals in real time; the average voltage of the input signals of the positive channels of all signal acquisition chips is input into the right leg drive circuit, passes through the inverting amplifier inside the right leg drive circuit, and is inverted and output to the flexible electrode.

[0010] According to the specific embodiments provided in this application, this application has the following technical effects:

[0011] The electromyographic signal collector in this application uses an array of surface electrodes with 8×64 channels, which is dozens of times more than the single-channel or dual-channel of traditional surface electromyographic devices and can observe the discharge of single neurons. It is small in size and wearable, and can be flexibly fixed to multiple muscle groups of the same user to measure muscle activity throughout the body. It can also be fixed on multiple users to conduct multi-person hyperscanning experiments. There is a unified base station to manage all collectors, and the configuration is simple and efficient. You only need to plug the collector into the base station to realize charging, status reading, configuration, data export, and time synchronization operations. The base station's multiple bus interface design enables high-precision sampling time synchronization between multiple collectors. This application can realize the simultaneous collection of high-density electromyographic signals by multiple electromyographic signal collectors, and multiple electromyographic signal collectors charge multiple electromyographic signal collectors at the same time, and read, configure, synchronize time, and pop up the electromyographic signal collectors according to the host computer's instructions. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present application or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for use in the embodiments. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present application. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative work.

[0013] FIG1 is a schematic structural diagram of a distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0014] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the electromyographic signal collector;

[0015] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the electromyographic signal acquisition base station. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of this application to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of this application. Obviously, the embodiments described are only part of the embodiments of this application, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments in this application, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative efforts are within the scope of protection of this application.

[0017] In order to make the above-mentioned purposes, features and advantages of the present application more obvious and easy to understand, the present application is further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific implementation methods.

[0018] In an exemplary embodiment, as shown in FIG1 , a distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system is provided, comprising: an electromyographic signal collector, an electromyographic signal acquisition base station, and a host computer. The electromyographic signal collector is connected to a flexible electrode during operation and is fixed to the position of the muscle to be measured on the human body, for real-time acquisition, processing, storage, and transmission of high-density electromyographic signals. The electromyographic signal acquisition base station is connected to the electromyographic signal collector and the host computer, respectively; the base station is used to store the electromyographic signal collector, communicate with the host computer, charge the electromyographic signal collector, and read, configure, synchronize time, and pop up the status and data of the electromyographic signal collector according to the host computer's instructions. The host computer provides a user graphical operation interface for managing and configuring the electromyographic signal collector, and receiving, storing, and processing real-time uploaded data.

[0019] As shown in Figure 2, the electromyographic signal collector includes: collector power supply, collector external equipment, signal acquisition board, interface and collector main control.

[0020] The power supply of the collector includes a battery, a battery management circuit and a voltage regulator circuit. The battery management circuit records the battery charge and discharge, temperature data, calculates the power, controls the battery to charge and discharge at a voltage of 3.7V to 4.2V, and transmits the power to the battery through the I 2 The C bus connects to the main controller of the data collector to upload battery information. The voltage regulator circuit stabilizes the battery voltage into multiple 3.3V power outputs for subsequent circuits. The low-noise voltage regulator circuit is specifically used to power the signal acquisition board to protect the sensitive acquisition circuit from external noise interference.

[0021] The external devices of the collector include USB physical layer peripherals, nine-axis inertial measurement unit (9-axis IMU), real-time clock (RTC), Wi-Fi wireless network card, SD card, OLED display, and function buttons. The 9-axis IMU, RTC, and OLED display are connected through I 2 The Wi-Fi wireless network card is connected to the main controller through the SPI bus, the SD card is connected to the SDIO bus, and the USB physical layer peripheral is connected to the main controller through the ULPI bus. The function keys are connected to the main controller through digital levels.

[0022] The 9-axis IMU circuit collects real-time 3-axis acceleration, 3-axis angular velocity, and 3-axis geomagnetic angle information from the EMG signal collector. The 9-axis IMU records the collector's acceleration, angular velocity, and other data. This data is then used to determine motion parameters such as absolute azimuth, spatial attitude, and linear velocity using a 9-axis motion fusion algorithm. When the collector is attached to a limb or torso, the 9-axis IMU can be used to assess posture, joint angles, movement speed, and trajectory. This information, combined with high-density EMG data, can be used for precise muscle movement recognition and motion state analysis.

[0023] RTC records real-time time; the Wi-Fi wireless network card is connected to the host computer through a wireless router to achieve wireless communication; the SD card stores sampling data and related information of the EMG signal collector; the OLED display screen displays information such as the experiment ID, experiment configuration, power, SD card storage capacity, network status, etc.; the USB physical layer peripheral is connected to the EMG signal acquisition base station when the EMG signal collector is inserted into the EMG signal acquisition base station, realizing high-speed USB 2.0 and ULPD interface bridging; the function buttons include OS (main button), Wi-Fi power button, and user event trigger button, which are used to turn the machine on and off, start and end the experiment, turn on and off Wi-Fi wireless transmission, and record user external event marks.

[0024] The signal acquisition board is connected to the main controller via a dual SPI bus. The board consists of eight 8-channel signal acquisition chips and a right leg drive circuit. Each chip can collect eight channels of myoelectric signals. During sampling, all eight chips sample simultaneously under the same sampling clock. Four chips are mounted on one SPI bus, for a total of two SPI buses, transmitting 64 channels of synchronously sampled data to the main controller in real time. For all signal acquisition chips, the negative input channels are short-circuited together and connected to the reference electrode, serving as the negative input of the amplifier. The eight positive channels, totaling 64 channels, are connected to the flexible electrode via a flexible electrode interface to collect high-density myoelectric signals. The input signals of the 64 positive channels are isolated by a large resistor and then short-circuited to obtain their average voltage (common-mode voltage). This common-mode voltage is then input to the right leg drive circuit. The inverting amplifier within the right leg drive circuit inverts the voltage and outputs it to the flexible electrode to offset common-mode interference.

[0025] The interface section includes a flexible electrode interface, a spring-loaded pin interface, and a reference electrode interface. The flexible electrode interface connects to the flexible electrode via a self-locking connector, which is used to collect 64 channels of high-density human EMG signals and output the right leg drive signal to the skin surface to offset common-mode interference. The reference electrode interface is a 2.5mm gold-plated banana plug. After the banana plug of the reference electrode cable is inserted, the reference electrode is attached to a potential reference point (such as the wrist, elbow, mastoid, or other areas without EMG influence) to serve as the negative reference point of the amplifier. The spring-loaded pin interface consists of 14 square spring-loaded pin female sockets, each 2.54mm long. When the EMG signal collector is inserted into the EMG signal acquisition base station, it contacts the male spring-loaded pin of the EMG signal acquisition base station to enable SPI communication, USB communication, functional bus functions (firmware upgrade, RTC synchronization, hot plug detection), and charging.

[0026] The main controller of the collector is responsible for communicating with each functional unit, collecting, processing, packaging, storing and transmitting data. When the main controller of the collector is collecting data, it reads the collected high-density electromyographic signal data through the dual-channel SPI bus and transmits it through the I 2C bus reads 9-axis IMU motion data and RTC timestamp, performs digital signal processing such as filtering on electromyographic signals and motion data, and stores the above sampling information and its own configuration parameter information such as power in the SD card. The packaged data is handed over to the Wi-Fi wireless network card and uploaded to the host computer through the SPI interface. When the electromyographic signal collector is inserted into the electromyographic signal acquisition base station, the collector communicates with the electromyographic signal acquisition base station through the pin interface, including SPI bus and USB2.0 bus communication. The USB 2.0 communication is bridged by the USB physical layer peripheral to the ULDP bus of the collector main controller. The collector main controller communicates with the ULDP bus through the I 2 The C bus is connected to the OLED display to display relevant information, receive user key input through digital levels and complete user process operations.

[0027] As shown in Figure 3, the electromyographic signal acquisition base station includes a base station power supply, a base station main control, a module interface, an external interface, and base station external equipment.

[0028] The base station power supply consists of a switching power supply and a filtering and step-down circuit. The switching power supply features a dual-circuit isolation design: one circuit supplies power to the external interface and the other to other components, isolating the external interface input and output from the system's internal power supply. The filtering and step-down circuit converts the switching power supply's 5V supply to 3.3V, which is then used to power the main control and peripheral components. The module interface's charging function is directly powered by the 5V switching power supply.

[0029] The base station master is the core of the main control board. It connects to the downstream port of the USB hub via a USB 1.0 bus, connects to buttons, indicators, and solenoid valve control circuits via digital input and output levels, connects to the RTC circuit via the I2C bus, and connects to external interfaces via SPI and digital input and output levels. The base station master is responsible for receiving commands from the host computer via the USB bus and executing operations such as reading, writing, ejecting, and updating data from the EMG signal collector. It also uses indicators to indicate the EMG signal collector's status, collects analog signals from the external analog input interface, uploads them to the host computer, and performs synchronized level input and output operations with external devices.

[0030] The module interface is located on the main control board and includes a charging management circuit and a communication bus. The charging management circuit automatically identifies the battery specifications and charge level of the inserted EMG signal collector and selects the appropriate charging current based on the battery charge level. The communication bus includes USB 2.0, SPI, and a function bus. The USB 2.0 bus connects to the USB HUB downstream port to enable high-capacity device protocol communication between the EMG signal collector and the host computer. The SPI bus connects to the base station main control to enable communication between the EMG signal collector and the EMG signal collection base station (uploading EMG signal collector status, writing EMG signal collector configuration to the EMG signal collection base station, etc.). The function bus connects to the base station main control to implement firmware upgrades, RTC synchronization, and hot-swap detection. The function bus transmits data in CMOS level form.

[0031] The external interface section is carried by an input / output board, which facilitates communication between the device and the outside world. It consists of digital isolators, an isolated power supply, and interface circuitry. To protect sensitive internal circuitry and isolate external interfaces from strong external electromagnetic interference, the EMG signal acquisition base station utilizes two independent isolated power domains to isolate the power supplies for the external analog inputs and external digital synchronous inputs and outputs. These are powered by an isolated ADC power supply and an isolated synchronization signal power supply, respectively. Furthermore, two sets of digital isolators electrically isolate the SPI and related control buses used for analog input ADC communication, and the digital level signals used for external synchronous inputs and outputs, separating the primary and secondary sides of the EMG signal acquisition base station from the outside world. Furthermore, a high-speed USB isolator is used to isolate the upstream bus of the USB hub from the external USB Type-C port. This circuit topology provides electromagnetic isolation between the USB port, analog input port, and external synchronous input / output port, preventing crosstalk.

[0032] The base station's external devices include a USB hub, buttons and indicator lights, an RTC, and a solenoid valve control circuit. The USB hub is located on the main control board. Its downstream port connects to the USB 2.0 bus of the eight signal collector pin interfaces to bridge the mass storage device protocol, and to the USB 1.0 bus of the main control to bridge the CDC device protocol. The upstream port of the USB hub connects to the USB Type-C interface of the host computer via the aforementioned high-speed USB isolator. The buttons and indicator lights are located on the pop-up button panel and the synchronization button panel according to their functional definitions and are connected to the base station main control to realize button input and light display output. The RTC circuit is located on the main control board and is connected to the base station main control via the I2C bus to record accurate real-time time. The solenoid valve control circuit is located on the main control board. It opens and closes the solenoid valve according to the instructions of the base station main control and feeds back the insertion and ejection status of the electromyographic signal collector to the base station main control.

[0033] This embodiment uses array surface electrodes, so the number of channels (8×64 channels) is dozens of times more than the single-channel or dual-channel of the traditional surface electromyography acquisition system, and the discharge of a single neuron can be observed; this application can realize that multiple electromyography signal collectors can collect high-density electromyography signals at the same time, multiple electromyography signal collectors can communicate with the host computer at the same time, and multiple electromyography signal collectors can be charged at the same time, and the status and data of the electromyography signal collectors can be read, configured, time synchronized, and popped up according to the instructions of the host computer.

[0034] The technical features of the above embodiments can be combined arbitrarily. To make the description concise, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this specification.

[0035] This document uses specific examples to illustrate the principles and implementation methods of this application. The description of the above examples is only intended to help understand the method and core concept of this application. At the same time, for those skilled in the art, based on the concept of this application, there may be changes in the specific implementation methods and application scope. In summary, the content of this specification should not be understood as limiting this application.

Claims

1. A distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system, characterized in that: include: EMG signal collector, EMG signal collection base station and host computer; The electromyographic signal collector is connected to the flexible electrode and fixed to the position of the muscle to be tested on the human body, and is used to collect, process, store and send high-density electromyographic signals in real time; The electromyographic signal acquisition base station is connected to the electromyographic signal collector and the host computer respectively; the electromyographic signal acquisition base station is used to read, configure, synchronize time and eject the status and data of the electromyographic signal collector according to the instructions issued by the host computer, and transmit the high-density electromyographic signals collected and stored offline by the electromyographic signal collector to the host computer; the host computer is used to manage and configure the electromyographic signal collector, and to receive, store and process the high-density electromyographic signals uploaded in real time; The electromyographic signal collector includes a signal acquisition board, which is composed of 8 8-channel signal acquisition chips and a right leg drive circuit; the negative channels of all signal acquisition chips are short-circuited together and connected to the reference electrode, and the positive channels of all signal acquisition chips are connected to the flexible electrode through a flexible electrode interface to collect high-density electromyographic signals in real time; The average voltage of the input signals of the positive channels of all signal acquisition chips is input to the right leg drive circuit, passes through the inverting amplifier inside the right leg drive circuit, and is inverted and output to the flexible electrode.

2. The distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The electromyographic signal collector also includes: a collector power supply, collector external equipment and a collector main control; The collector power supply is connected to the collector main control and the signal acquisition board respectively, and is used to supply power to the collector main control and the signal acquisition board; The collector main control is connected to the signal acquisition board and the collector external device respectively, and is used to process, store and send high-density electromyographic signals; and is connected to the electromyographic signal acquisition base station through the collector external device.

3. The distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system according to claim 2 is characterized in that: The collector power supply includes a battery, a battery management circuit and a voltage stabilizing circuit.

4. The distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system according to claim 2 is characterized in that: The collector's external devices include: USB physical layer peripherals, nine-axis inertial measurement unit, real-time clock, Wi-Fi wireless network card, SD card, OLED display and function buttons; The nine-axis inertial measurement unit, the real-time clock and the OLED display screen are connected by I 2 The C bus is connected to the main controller of the collector, the Wi-Fi wireless network card is connected to the main controller of the collector via the SPI bus, the SD card is connected to the main controller of the collector via SDIO, the USB physical layer peripheral is connected to the main controller of the collector via the ULPI bus, and the function key is connected to the main controller of the collector via digital level; The nine-axis inertial measurement unit is used to collect real-time three-axis acceleration, three-axis angular velocity and three-axis geomagnetic angle information of the electromyographic signal collector; the real-time clock is used to record real-time time; the Wi-Fi wireless network card is connected to the host computer through a wireless router to achieve wireless communication; the SD card is used to store the high-density electromyographic signal; the OLED display is used to display the experiment ID, experiment configuration, power, SD card storage capacity and network status; the USB physical layer peripheral is connected to the electromyographic signal acquisition base station; the function keys include a main button, a Wi-Fi power key and a user event trigger key.

5. The distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system according to claim 2, characterized in that: The electromyographic signal collector also includes: a flexible electrode interface, a spring pin interface and a reference electrode interface; the signal acquisition board is connected to the flexible electrode through the flexible electrode interface, and the reference electrode is connected to the reference electrode interface and attached to the potential reference point; when the electromyographic signal collector and the electromyographic signal acquisition base station are connected, the spring pin interface contacts the spring pin male head of the electromyographic signal acquisition base station, and the electromyographic signal acquisition base station communicates with and charges the electromyographic signal collector.

6. [Corrected 12.02.2025 according to Rule 26] The distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system according to claim 1 is characterized in that: The electromyographic signal acquisition base station includes: a base station power supply and a base station main control; The base station power supply is connected to the base station main control and is used to supply power to the base station main control; The base station main control is connected to the host computer and the electromyographic signal collector respectively, and is used to read the status and data, configure, synchronize time and eject the electromyographic signal collector according to the instructions of the host computer.

7. The distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system according to claim 6, characterized in that: The base station power supply includes a switching power supply and a filtering and voltage-reducing circuit.

8. The distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system according to claim 6, characterized in that: The electromyographic signal acquisition base station also includes: base station external equipment; the base station external equipment includes: USB HUB, buttons and indicator lights, RTC circuit and solenoid valve control circuit; the downstream port of the USB HUB is connected to the physical layer peripherals of the signal collector and the base station main control, and the upstream port of the USB HUB is connected to the host computer; the buttons and indicator lights are connected to the base station main control for button input and light display output; the RTC circuit is connected to the I 2 The C bus is connected to the base station main control for recording real-time time; the solenoid valve control circuit is connected to the base station main control for opening and closing the solenoid valve according to the instructions of the base station main control, and feeding back the insertion and ejection status of the electromyographic signal collector to the base station main control.

9. The distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system according to claim 8, characterized in that: The electromyographic signal acquisition base station further comprises: a module interface; the module interface comprises a charging management circuit and a communication bus; The charging management circuit is used to identify the battery specifications and power status of the electromyographic signal collector and select the charging current according to the battery power status; The communication bus includes USB 2.0, SPI bus and function bus. The USB 2.0 bus is connected to the downstream port of the USB HUB to realize protocol communication between the electromyographic signal collector and the host computer. The SPI bus is connected to the base station main control to realize communication between the electromyographic signal collector and the electromyographic signal acquisition base station. The function bus is connected to the base station main control to realize firmware upgrade, RTC synchronization and hot plug detection functions.

10. The distributed wearable matrix high-density electromyographic signal acquisition system according to claim 6, characterized in that: The electromyographic signal acquisition base station further includes: an external interface; the external interface includes a digital isolator, an isolated power supply and an interface circuit.

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