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Applying Machine Learning to Finger Movements Using Electromyography and Visualization in Opensim (2022)
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Electromyographic signals have been used with low-degree-of-freedom prostheses, and recently with multifunctional prostheses. Currently, they are also being used as inputs in the human–computer interface that controls interaction through hand gestures. Although there is a gap between academic publications on the control of an upper-limb prosthesis developed in laboratories and its service in the natural environment, there are attempts to achieve easier control using multiple muscle signals. This work contributes to this, using a database and biomechanical simulation software, both open access, to seek simplicity in the classifiers, anticipating their implementation in microcontrollers and their execution in real time. Fifteen predefined finger movements of the hand were identified using classic classifiers such as Bayes, linear and quadratic discriminant analysis. The idealized movements of the database were modeled with Opensim for visualization. Combinations of two preprocessing methods—the forward sequential selection method and the feature normalization method—were evaluated to increase the efficiency of these classifiers. The statistical methods of cross-validation, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan were used to validate the results. Furthermore, the classifier with the best recognition result was redesigned into a new feature space using the sparse matrix algorithm to improve it, and to determine which features can be eliminated without degrading the classification. The classifiers yielded promising results—the quadratic discriminant being the best, achieving an average recognition rate for each individual considered of 96.16%, and with 78.36% for the total sample group of the eight subjects, in an independent test dataset. The study ends with the visual analysis under Opensim of the classified movements, in which the usefulness of this simulation tool is appreciated by revealing the muscular participation, which can be useful during the design of a multifunctional prosthesis.


The ¨Wrist Model¨ reported by Gonzalez in Opensim SimTK is complemented by adding the missing degrees of freedom to the middle, ring and little fingers.


The ¨Wrist Model¨ reported by Gonzalez in Opensim SimTK have 10 degrees of freedom, and a total of 23 actuator muscles, with movement in the forearm, wrist, thumb (no flexion) and Index, but as the purpose of our investigation is to evaluate the complete movements of a real hand in simulation, we decided to modify this model and complete the movement of the hand adding the missing degrees of freedom to the thumb, middle, ring and little fingers. This more complete model is used for simulation of the predicted movements of a hand motion classifier under Matlab, for a virtual hand application. The tool ¨Computed Muscle Control¨ (CMC) was used review the sequence of muscle excitations of these movements. Programs such as rhinoceros, paraview and notepad++ were used to modify figures in .vtp format to read opensim models.

In the Documents section we find the .mot files of the movements that we created to load in the presented model.

Funder Information

This project is funded by Jose Alejandro Amezquita Garcia, Miguel Enrique Bravo Zanoguera.

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Modification of Wrist Model to include all the movements of the fingers

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