Deep Multi-Scale Fusion of Convolutional Neural Networks for EMG-Based Movement Estimation

EMG-based motion estimation is required for applications such as myoelectric control, where the simultaneous estimation of kinematic information, namely joint angle and velocity, is challenging and critical. We propose a novel method for accurately modelling the generated joint angle and velocity simultaneously under isotonic, isokinetic (quasi-dynamic), and fully dynamic conditions. Our solution uses two streams of CNN, called TS-CNN to learn informative features from raw EMG data using different scales and estimate the generated motion during elbow flexion and extension. The experimental results show the robustness of our approach in comparison to conventional CNN as well as some methods used in the literature. The best obtained R² values, are 0.81±0.06, 0.71±0.06, and 0.80±0.13 for joint angle estimation and 0.78±0.05, 0.79±0.07, and 0.71±0.13 for the velocity estimation, during isotonic, isokinetic, and dynamic contractions, respectively. Additionally, our results indicate that the experimental condition can have an impact on the model's performance for motion prediction. EMG-based velocity estimation obtains higher performance than joint angle estimation under isokinetic conditions. Under dynamic conditions, joint angle estimation is more accurate than velocity estimation, and there is no difference between joint angle and velocity estimation in the isotonic case.