Estimation of Lower Limb Joint Angles Using sEMG Signals and RGB-D Camera

Estimating human joint angles is a crucial task in motion analysis, gesture recognition, and motion intention prediction. This paper presents a novel model-based approach for generating reliable and accurate human joint angle estimation using a dual-branch network. The proposed network leverages combined features derived from encoded sEMG signals and RGB-D image data. To ensure the accuracy and reliability of the estimation algorithm, the proposed network employs a convolutional autoencoder to generate a high-level compression of sEMG features aimed at motion prediction. Considering the variability in the distribution of sEMG signals, the proposed network introduces a vision-based joint regression network to maintain the stability of combined features. Taking into account latency, occlusion, and shading issues with vision data acquisition, the feature fusion network utilizes high-frequency sEMG features as weights for specific features extracted from image data. The proposed method achieves effective human body joint angle estimation for motion analysis and motion intention prediction by mitigating the effects of non-stationary sEMG signals.