Machine Learning for Detection of Muscular Activity from Surface EMG Signals

Background: Muscular-activity timing is useful information that is extractable from surface EMG signals (sEMG). However, a reference method is not available yet. The aim of this study is to investigate the reliability of a novel machine-learning-based approach (DEMANN) in detecting the onset/offset timing of muscle activation from sEMG signals. Methods: A dataset of 2880 simulated sEMG signals, stratified for signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and time support, was generated to train a hidden single-layer fully-connected neural network. DEMANN’s performance was evaluated on simulated sEMG signals and two different datasets of real sEMG signals. DEMANN was validated against different reference algorithms, including the acknowledged double-threshold statistical algorithm (DT). Results: DEMANN provided a reliable prediction of muscle onset/offset in simulated and real sEMG signals, being minimally affected by SNR variability. When directly compared with state-of-the-art algorithms, DEMANN introduced relevant improvements in prediction performances. Conclusions: These outcomes support DEMANN’s reliability in assessing onset/offset events in different motor tasks and the condition of signal quality (different SNR), improving reference-algorithm performances. Unlike other works, DEMANN’s adopts a machine learning approach where a neural network is trained by only simulated sEMG signals, avoiding the possible complications and costs associated with a typical experimental procedure, making this approach suitable to clinical practice.