Robust Design of Smart Shorts for Muscle Activity Analysis

This paper describes a robust design approach to optimize the design of smart shorts for muscle activity analysis. A practical application related to electromyographic shorts for monitoring six main thigh muscles is shown. Starting from a 2D digital model of a pattern block related to the shorts, a robust design approach is applied to optimize the design of textile electrodes for surface electromyography analysis in terms of size (i.e., diameter), and location (i.e., inter-electrode distance). The aim is to reduce the sensitiveness to noise factors (i.e., skin lubrication condition, anthropometric variability and gesture type) guaranteeing the best performance in terms of Signal Noise Ratio. The experimental campaign related to football activities allows the practical application of the proposed approach for the design of smart shorts for football. The results allow to define the optimal configurations for the six muscles of interest. This work might pave the way for the development of tailored smart garments for electromyography analysis.