Simultaneous and proportional force estimation in multiple degrees of freedom from intramuscular EMG

This letter investigates simultaneous and proportional estimation of force in 2 degree-of-freedoms (DoFs) from intramuscular electromyography (EMG). Intramuscular EMG signals from three able-bodied subjects were recorded along with isometric forces in multiple DoF from the right arm. The association between five EMG features and force profiles was modeled using an artificial neural network. Correlation coefficients between the measured and the estimated forces were 0.85 ± 0.056 and 0.88 ± 0.05 without and with post processing, respectively. The results showed that force can be estimated in 2 DoFs with high accuracy and that the degree of performance depended on the force function (task) to be estimated.