Hope College Engineering Department
Summer 2007
Project Summary

 

Project Title:

Designing and Interfacing an Accelerometer for Measuring Muscle Movements
Student Name: Rachel Bakken
Student's Home Institution: Hope College
Research Advisor: Dr. Abrahantes/ Dr. Armstrong
Source of Support: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF-REU Grant No. 0452206.
Under the collaboration of the Engineering and Kinesiology Departments of Hope College, a low-cost, uniaxial accelerometer (ACC) was created to evaluate muscle activity. The project began by investigating mechanomyography (MMG), which is the recording of the lateral oscillations produced by contracting muscle fibers. A circuit was developed to interface an accelerometer with the Biopac System and repeatedly tested to confirm the validity of the ACC. Difficulties encountered when integrating the research-made ACC with the commercial data acquisition system of Biopac were overcome through design modifications. The final phase of the project worked to utilize a completely customized data acquisition system using LabVIEW software and a National Instruments Data Acquisition assistant, which will be developed further. The resultant accelerometers have capabilities of interfacing with both the Biopac System and the National Instruments system interchangeably to allow flexibility in the utilization of the accelerometers.