Joint force estimation using time-varying SEMG feature in fatiguing contraction.

Many studies have estimated joint force using surface electromyography (SEMG), however, the time-variant characteristic of SEMG is not considered. The change of SEMG amplitude is one of manifestations of muscle fatigue. This study proposes a force estimation method using SEMG in fatiguing contraction. The SEMG amplitude is used to determine the signal states by k-means clustering method. According to the signal state changes, the corresponding gain is used to estimate the force. The target contraction is an isometric abduction of an index finger in static and dynamic force conditions for 5 healthy subjects. The estimation performance was evaluated by percentage of root mean squared error (RMSE). The RMSE for the proposed method is 2.5 ± 1.0% under static condition and 8.8 ± 1.2% under dynamic condition. The accuracy using a constant gain calculated at initial time was used to compare with the proposed method. The RMSE are 8.9 ± 2.2% under static condition and 10.1 ± 2.4% under dynamic condition. The proposed method had better performance in both conditions.