Intelligent EMG Pattern Recognition Control Method for Upper-Limb Multifunctional Prostheses: Advances, Current Challenges, and Future Prospects

• Published in: IEEE access Vol. 7; pp. 10150 - 10165
• Main Authors: Samuel, Oluwarotimi Williams, Asogbon, Mojisola Grace, Geng, Yanjuan, Al-Timemy, Ali H., Pirbhulal, Sandeep, Ji, Ning, Chen, Shixiong, Fang, Peng, Li, Guanglin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 2019; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Algorithms; Amputation; Amputees; Control methods; Control systems; Degrees of freedom; Electrodes; electromyogram; Electromyography; Machine learning; Muscle contraction; Muscles; Muscular function; Pattern recognition; Prostheses; Prosthetics; rehabilitation; Robust control; upper-limb prostheses; Wrist
• ISSN: 2169-3536; 2169-3536
• DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2891350

Upper-limb amputation imposes significant burden on amputees thereby restricting them from fully exploring their environments during activities of daily living. The use of intelligent learning algorithm for electromyogram-pattern recognition (EMG-PR)-based control in upper-limb prostheses is considered as an important clinical option. Though the existing EMG-PR prostheses could discriminate multiple degrees of freedom (DOF) limb movements, their transition to clinically viable option is still being challenged by some confounding factors. Toward realizing a clinically viable multiple DOF prostheses, this paper first explored the principles and dynamics of the existing intelligently driven EMG-PR-based prostheses control scheme. Then, investigations on core issues including variation in muscle contraction force, electrode shift, and subject mobility affecting the existing EMG-PR prosthetic control scheme were reported. For instance, variation in muscle contraction force and subject mobility led to degradation in the performance of the EMG-PR controlled prostheses with approximately 17.00% and 8.98% error values, respectively, which are still challenging issues among others. Thus, this paper reports core issues and best practices with respect to intelligent EMG-PR controlled prosthesis, the major challenges in implementing adaptively robust control scheme and provides future research directions that may result in the clinical realization of intuitively dexterous multiple DOF EMG-PR-based prostheses in the near future.