Muscle force estimation method with surface EMG for a lower extremities rehabilitation device

This paper presents a new wearable lower extremities assistive robotic device that aims at providing assistive torque for stroke patients during rehabilitation process. The device specifically provides the assistive torque by detecting the user's intention using surface electromyography (EMG) signals with the force/torque estimation method based on continuous wavelet transform (CWT). The general hardware design of the current rehabilitation prototype was developed. Experiments were conducted to collect hamstring and quadriceps muscles EMG signals from 10 healthy subjects. Data analysis was carried out to evaluate the feasibility of the proposed human force/torque estimation algorithm. The force/torque estimation results show high implementation feasibility for the assistive device. Online tests were also carried out with the assistive device using the EMG signal to command motors. The output estimation force, hip and knee joint positions were obtained from the real-time implementation.