Publication

Abstract : Comfort on a motorcycle is an important factor for people who ride regularly, especially for those who travel over long distances. The riders are subjected to prolonged discomfort in upper body parts, which can easily be prevented using posture correction. Other problems like poor road conditions, improper helmet selection and its continuous use lead to pain in neck, shoulder and lower back. This work attempts to study the fatigue developed in muscles such as Latissimus Dorsi (LD) and Flexor Carpi Ulnaris (FCU) during motorcycle riding using Surface Electromyography (sEMG) signal. The study was conducted on 20 healthy male subjects in a pre-determined track of 3kms. Number of rounds was fixed after pilot study. The signals are recorded after each round. The signal features namely root mean square (RMS), mean frequency and entropy is extracted from the recorded signals. The results show that majority of the participants have significant muscle fatigue in LD and FCU after 3 rounds. An increase of 18.7% in RMS, 5% decrease in mean frequency and a 6.04% decrease in entropy is found in LD and 3.8% increase in RMS, 1.8% decrease in mean frequency and 1.5% increase in entropy is found in FCU. Significant changes in these features are observed after each round. This study can be used for posture correction analysis in future.