Evaluation of tractor drivers’ neck fatigue by surface electromyogram

For understanding the fatigue situation of tractor drivers’ neck muscle during operation, the electromyogram signal of sternocleidomastoid muscle was tested by simulating the process of reversing operation. Then analysis was conducted in time domain, frequency domain and time-frequency domain by using the index of integrated electromyogram, mean power frequency and wavelet decomposition coefficients. The results showed that the iEMG, MPF and wavelet decomposition coefficients had downward trend after tractor drivers’ neck became fatigue. There is a significant difference of the iEMG, MPF and wavelet decomposition coefficients before and after fatigue, which can effectively evaluate the tractor drivers’ neck fatigue.