Human joint torque modelling with mmg and emg during lower limb human-exoskeleton interaction
File(s)IEEE RA-L_ID_21-0864.pdf (3.4 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Huo, Weiguang
Caulcrick, Christopher
Hoult, Will
Vaidyanathan, Ravi
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Human-robot cooperation is vital for optimising powered assist of lower limb exoskeletons (LLEs). Robotic capacity to intelligently adapt to human force, however, demands a fusion of data from exoskeleton and user state for smooth human-robot synergy. Muscle activity, mapped through electromyography (EMG) or mechanomyography (MMG) is widely acknowledged as usable sensor input that precedes the onset of human joint torque. However, competing and complementary information between such physiological feedback is yet to be exploited, or even assessed, for predictive LLE control. We investigate complementary and competing benefits of EMG and MMG sensing modalities as a means of calculating human torque input for assist-as-needed (AAN) LLE control. Three biomechanically agnostic machine learning approaches, linear regression, polynomial regression, and neural networks, are implemented for joint torque prediction during human-exoskeleton interaction experiments. Results demonstrate MMG predicts human joint torque with slightly lower accuracy than EMG for isometric human-exoskeleton interaction. Performance is comparable for dynamic exercise. Neural network models achieve the best performance for both MMG and EMG (94.8 ± 0.7% with MMG and 97.6 ± 0.8% with EMG (Mean ± SD)) at the expense of training time and implementation complexity. This investigation represents the first MMG human joint torque models for LLEs and their first comparison with EMG. We provide our implementations for future investigations ( https://github.com/cic12/ieee_appx ).
Date Issued
2021-10-01
Date Acceptance
2021-06-30
Citation
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2021, 6 (4), pp.7185-7192
ISSN
2377-3766
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Start Page
7185
End Page
7192
Journal / Book Title
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Volume
6
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© 2021 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (E
Grant Number
EP/R511547/1
Subjects
0913 Mechanical Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-07-19