Development of recommendations for SEMG sensors and sensor placement procedures

The knowledge of surface electromyography (SEMG) and the number of applicat ions have increased considerably during the past ten years. However, most m ethodological developments have taken place locally, resulting in different methodologies among the different groups of users. A specific objective of the European concerted action SENIAM (surface EMG f or a non-invasive assessment of muscles) was, besides creating more collabo ration among the various European groups, to develop recommendations on sen sors, sensor placement, signal processing and modeling. This paper will pre sent the process and the results of the development of the recommendations for the SEMG sensors and sensor placement procedures. Execution of the SENIAM sensor tasks, in the period 1996-1999, has been han dled in a number of partly parallel and partly sequential activities. A lit erature scan was carried out on the use of sensors and sensor placement pro cedures in European laboratories. In total, 144 peer-reviewed papers were s canned on the applied SEMG sensor properties and sensor placement procedure s. This showed a large variability of methodology as well as a rather insuf ficient description. A special workshop provided an overview on the scienti fic and clinical knowledge of the effects of sensor properties and sensor p lacement procedures on the SEMG characteristics. Based on the inventory, the results of the topical workshop and generally a ccepted state-of-the-art knowledge, a first proposal for sensors and sensor placement procedures was defined. Besides containing a general procedure a nd recommendations for sensor placement, this was worked out in detail for 27 different muscles. This proposal was evaluated in several European labor atories with respect to technical and practical aspects and also sent to al l members of the SENIAM club (>100 members) together with a questionnaire t o obtain their comments. Based on this evaluation the final recommendations of SENIAM were made and published (SENIAM 8: European recommendations for surface electromyography, 1999), both as a booklet and as a CD-ROM. In this way a common body of knowledge has been created on SEMG sensors and sensor placement properties as well as practical guidelines for the proper use of SEMG. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.