Surface Electromyography in the Field of Human Factors and Ergonomic Muscle Fatigue: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Recently Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSD) and Fatigue are taking on an important role especially in the progressive increase and tightening of the human-machine interface. Many ergonomists are currently using surface electromyographic (sEMG) signals techniques to investigate and assess muscle fatigue. Therefore, this paper provides a narrative review of current research on sEMG techniques in the field of human factors and ergonomic muscle fatigue.Evaluate and summarize studies related to the use of sEMG in human factors and ergonomics to probe muscle fatigue.Selected articles included publications in journals, books, and conference proceedings between 2012 and 2022 and assessed muscle activity in research using surface EMG techniques, intervention studies in real human subjects, quantitative research methods and evaluation tools, and authoritative study design.The final review included 32 articles and found that surface EMG studies in the field of human factors and ergonomic muscle fatigue mainly included risk assessment of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, workplace layout design assessment, usability assessment, and exoskeleton optimization assessment. Moreover, the current EMG experiments have significant variability in ideal and realistic conditions, and the lack of standardization of data and methods, which limits the development and application of EMG signals in human factors and ergonomic studies.The findings of this study can help ergonomists to understand the current research progress of sEMG techniques in this field in order to better select suitable, reliable, and accurate methods for human factors and ergonomic muscle fatigue assessment.