University of Baghdad

Al-Khwarizmi College of Engineering

Biomedical Engineering Department

Biomechanics Design Lab. 1- Fifth stage

Lab. 3: Investigation of different pinch forces with sEMG and hand

Dynamometer

Dr Ali Hussein and Hind Adil (MSc)

V01 2019

1 Background
In general, the amplitude of the EMG of the movements of the fingers is lower than that of the wrist or
hand movements as the latter require larger amount of contraction level than that of a finger. Flexion and
extension movements of the fingers are actuated externally by muscles inside the forearm. Flexor
Digitorum Superficials and Flexor Digitorum Profundus (FDP) are the main 2 muscles responsible for
finger flexion. Variety of finger grips can be obtained with a combination of thumb and finger flexion
such as the fine pinch which is formed by the thumb and index finger and the tripod grip formed by the
flexion of the thumb, middle and index fingers.
In this lab., you will investigate the relation between the Electromyography (EMG) signal of forearm
skeletal muscles for different types of pinch grips and compare it to that of a power grip from the previous
lab. (Lab.2). In addition, we will use the hand dynamometer to acquire EMG with multiple levels of %
MVC for fine pinch.

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 Fig. 1 Integrated EMG activity for different types of finger movements and grip patterns

Student notes:

Objectives of the Experiment:

1- To investigate different types of grips with the fingers and observe the EMG activity and the force
with the use of hand dynamometer.
2- To investigate on the %MVC for a fine pinch grip and compare it to that of power grip obtained in
Lab.2.

2 Materials Needed to perform the experiment

1- Vernier EKG sensor (Fig.2).
2- EMG electrodes and wet wipes
3- Hand Dynamometer (Fig.2).
4- Data Acquisition (Vernier LabQuest2 interface).
5- Logger Pro software.
6- Microsoft Excel or Matlab.

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 Fig. 2 Vernier hand Dynamometer (Left), Vernier EKG sensor (right)

3 Experimental Procedure:
3.1 Experiment-1: Recording of different for types of grips with EKG sensor and
hand dynamometer.

A. Data collection (EMG and Force)

1- Clean the subject forearm with wet wipe to remove dirt and dead cells and wait for 1 minute to
dry.
2- Place 2 electrodes on the subject forearm as shown in Fig.3, and place one electrode on the
bony part of the elbow.
3- Connect Vernier EKG sensor to Channel 2 (Ch2) in LabQuest 2 interface and connect the red
and green wires on the forearm and the black wire on the reference on the elbow.

Fig. 3 Placement of the 2 electrodes on the surface of the forearm (red and green)

4- Connect the Vernier Hand dynamometer to Channel (Ch1) on the LabQuest 2 interface.
5- Now we will use the LabQuest interface to collect the force and EMG signal.
Note: Don’t connect the LabQuest interface to the computer.

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 6- Now, press the power button of the LabQuest.
7- Right click with the Stylus pen on the LabQuest screen and choose Zero icon shown below
and select only the Force to calibrate it.
Note: Do not select the zero button for the Ch2:EKG
8- Now we will examine the force display on the LabQuest screen. Perform couple of finger
grips with different contraction levels with the hand dynamometer and see how the force
gauge changes.
9- On the LabQuest screen, click on the Duration and set it to 90 seconds.

10- Now perform a series of constant contractions of 5 seconds length with moderate force for
the following types of finger grips for with a rest period of 5 seconds in between the trials.
No. Grip type
1 Fine pinch
2 Tripod grip
3 Thumb Middle finger
4 Thumb + ring finger
5 Thumb + ring finger

Notes:

11- To collect the EMG and force data, click on the green collect button on the down left corner.
After you finish, press the red stop button.

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 12- Now, connect the USB cable of LabQuest 2 to the computer and make sure that the laptop is
operating on a battery to reduce the power line interference (50 Hz).
13- Open Logger lite software.
14- You will be asked by a message telling you that there is already a data on the LabQuest,
accept that and also you will be asked if you want to import the data on the LabQuest, click
yes.
15- Save the data file as Lab3-GroupNO-Finger_grip_Types.
16- Disconnect the LabQuest from the computer.

B. Data analysis (EMG and Force)

1- Load the file Lab3-GroupNO-Finger_grip_Types on the Logger lite software.

2- Perform the analysis by selecting segment that you want (Fig.4) and then choose Analyze/
Statistics and choose the force or the EKG activity and write the mean value in Table 1 for
each case.

Fig. 4 Selecting the segment of the signal to find the mean. (Top) EMG signal, ( Bottom) Force.

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 Table 1 The mean values of the force and EMG signal for different finger grip types
No. Finger grip type Mean of the Force Mean of the absolute of EMG
1 Fine pinch
2 Tripod grip
3 Thumb Middle finger
4 Thumb + ring finger
5 Thumb + ring finger

3.2 Experiment2: Recording of Fine pinch with multiple % MVC levels

A. Data Collection
1. Now we will use the LabQuest interface to collect the force and EMG signal.
Note: Don’t connect the LabQuest interface to the computer.
2. Now, press the power button of the LabQuest.
3. Right click with the Stylus pen on the LabQuest screen and choose Zero icon shown below and select
only the Force to calibrate it.
Note: Do not select the zero button for the Ch2:EKG
4. Now we will examine the force display on the LabQuest screen. Perform fine pinch with different
contraction levels with the hand dynamometer and see how the force gauge changes.
5. On the LabQuest screen, click on the Duration and set it to 120 seconds.
6. Now perform fine pinch with 100% maximum voluntary contraction (100% MVC) and try to record
in the right table below the maximum force level for the subject. Also, try to find other % MVCs, i.e.
10%, 30%, 50% and 70%. We will use the lower part of the dynamometer (Fig.5 left side and Fig.6) to
measure the force of pinches.

Fine Pinch Subject name:

 100 % MVC=
10 % MVC=
30 % MVC=
50 % MVC=
70 % MVC=

Fig. 5. Lower part of the hand dynamometer to record finger pinches

7. In the next step, we will try to record 10%, 30% 50%, 70 % and 100 % MVC and store the data file.

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8. Record the pinch force and EMG and try to ask the subject to produce 10%, 30% ,50%, 70 % and
100 % MVC levels (note: use the information you recorded in step 6). The contraction for each
level should last for 5 seconds and then rest period between each contraction of 3-4 seconds. Finally
perform 100% MVC for 5 seconds.

Notes:

Note: use the lower part of the hand dynamometer in a horizontal position as shown in Fig. 6.

-
Fig.6 Subject performing Fine pinch grip with the lower part of the hand dynamometer

9. Click stop the recording after you finish

10. Now, connect the USB cable of LabQuest 2 to the computer and make sure that the laptop is
operating on a battery to reduce the power line interference (50 Hz).
11. Open Logger lite software.
12. You will be asked by a message telling you that there is already a data on the LabQuest, accept that
and also you will be asked if you want to import the data on the LabQuest, click yes.
13. Click File Save give the name Lab3-GroupNO- FinePinch_10-100MVC.

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 14. Copy the data files on a CD and give it to your colleagues in the group so that they can analyze the
data.
B. Data analysis
1- Load the logger lite file (Lab3-GroupNO- FinePinch_10-100MVC) that you saved in the
previous step.
2- Perform the analysis by selecting segment that you want and then choose Analyze/ Statistics and
choose the force or the EKG activity and report the mean value in Table 2 for each case.

Table 2 Results of experiment 2 (Effect of feedback on the contraction strength)

No. Grip type Mean Absolute Value (MAV) of
Mean of the force level (N) the EMG activity
1 10% MVC

2 30% MVC
3 50% MVC

4 70% MVC

5 100% MVC

3.3 Experiment 3: Power Grip Group Student Contest

In this part, we will use hand dynamometer and choose 4 students of each group and ask them to
produce two 5 second trials of power grip with 100 MVC% with the dominant hand. Then, we will
calculate the mean of the 2 trials and then the mean of all group members. Write your results in Table 3 at
the end of the lab. sheet.

4 Lab.3 Report Homework:

- Submit a short report to your tutors where the deadline is on Monday from every week. Answer and
perform the following points:
1- Examine Table 1 and check which finger pinch has the highest force and which one has the less.
Do the same for the mean of the absolute value of the EMG.
2- Examine Table 2 and check if the mean of the force and EMG increases with the increasing the
number of % MVC for the fine pinch.
3- Compare the results obtained in Table 2 to the results of the power grip in the previous lab.
(Lab.2, Table 1). Is there any difference in the grip forces, Why ?

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 4- Load the following file into MATLAB or Excel and normalize the values of the EMG and force
to be between 0 and 1. (Hint: Use the maximum value in each plot to do the normalization and
then divide by that value).
Lab3-GroupNO-Finger_grip_Types.

5- Print the tables and your calculations with a CD of your 2 recorded data files.

5 References/ further reading

1- Raj Rangayan, Biomedical Signal Analysis, IEEE press, 2015.
2- Vernier Software online resources.
3- BioPac student manual (BSL), EMG 1 and II.

Table 3 Grip force for each group

No. Grip type Student name Contraction-1 (100 % Contraction-2 (100 % Average
MVC) MVC)
1 Group 1 1-
2-
3-
4-
2 Group 2 1-
2-
3-
4-
3 Group 3 1-
2-
3-
4-
4 Group 4 1-
2-
3-
4-

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