This work presents the development of a novel robotic knee exoskeleton controlled by motion intention based on sEMG, which uses admittance control to assist people with reduced mobility and improve their locomotion. Clinical research remark that these devices working in constant interaction with the neuromuscular and skeletal human system improves functional compensation and rehabilitation. Hence, the users become an active part of the training/rehabilitation, facilitating their involvement and improving their neural plasticity. For recognition of the lower-limb motion intention and discrimination of knee movements, sEMG from both lower-limb and trunk are used, which implies a new approach to control robotic assistive devices. Methods: A control system that includes a stage for human-motion intention recognition (HMIR), based on techniques to classify motion classes related to knee joint were developed. For translation of the user's intention to a desired state for the robotic knee exoskeleton, the system also includes a finite state machine and admittance, velocity and trajectory controllers with a function that allows stopping the movement according to the users intention. Results: The proposed HMIR showed an accuracy between 76% to 83% for lower-limb muscles, and 71% to 77% for trunk muscles to classify motor classes of lower-limb movements. Experimental results of the controller showed that the admittance controller proposed here offers knee support in 50% of the gait cycle and assists correctly the motion classes. Conclusion: The robotic knee exoskeleton introduced here is an alternative method to empower knee movements using sEMG signals from lower-limb and trunk muscles.

Motor Imagery (MI)-based Brain–Computer Interfaces (BCIs) have been widely used as an alternative communication channel to patients with severe motor disabilities, achieving high classification accuracy through machine learning techniques. Recently, deep learning techniques have spotlighted the state-of-the-art of MI-based BCIs. These techniques still lack strategies to quantify predictive uncertainty and may produce overconfident predictions. In this work, methods to enhance the performance of existing MI-based BCIs are proposed in order to obtain a more reliable system for real application scenarios. First, the Monte Carlo dropout (MCD) method is proposed on MI deep neural models to improve classification and provide uncertainty estimation. This approach was implemented using Shallow Convolutional Neural Network (SCNN-MCD) and with an ensemble model (E-SCNN-MCD). As another contribution, to discriminate MI task predictions of high uncertainty, a threshold approach is introduced and tested for both SCNN-MCD and E-SCNN-MCD approaches. The BCI Competition IV Databases 2a and 2b were used to evaluate the proposed methods for both subject-specific and non-subject-specific strategies, obtaining encouraging results for MI recognition.

Introduction: Intuitive prosthesis control is one of the most important challenges in order to reduce the user effort in learning how to use an artificial hand. This work presents the development of a novel method for pattern recognition of sEMG signals able to discriminate, in a very accurate way, dexterous hand and fingers movements using a reduced number of electrodes, which implies more confidence and usability for amputees. Methods: The system was evaluated for ten forearm amputees and the results were compared with the performance of able-bodied subjects. Multiple sEMG features based on fractal analysis (detrended fluctuation analysis and Higuchi's fractal dimension) combined with traditional magnitude-based features were analyzed. Genetic algorithms and sequential forward selection were used to select the best set of features. Support vector machine (SVM), K-nearest neighbors (KNN) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) were analyzed to classify individual finger flexion, hand gestures and different grasps using four electrodes, performing contractions in a natural way to accomplish these tasks. Statistical significance was computed for all the methods using different set of features, for both groups of subjects (able-bodied and amputees). Results: The results showed average accuracy up to 99.2% for able-bodied subjects and 98.94% for amputees using SVM, followed very closely by KNN. However, KNN also produces a good performance, as it has a lower computational complexity, which implies an advantage for real-time applications. Conclusion:The results show that the method proposed is promising for accurately controlling dexterous prosthetic hands, providing more functionality and better acceptance for amputees.

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ResumenUno de los principales retos en el diseño de prótesis de mano es poder establecer un control intuitivo que reduzca el esfuerzo del usuario durante su entrenamiento. Este trabajo presenta un esquema para identificar tareas de motricidad fina de la mano, agrupadas en movimientos de los dedos individuales y gestos para el agarre de objetos el cual se ha validado con sujetos amputados. Se han comparado diferentes métodos de selección de características y clasificadores para el reconocimiento de patrones mioeléctricos, utilizando cuatro electrodos superficiales. Las características de las señales en el dominio del tiempo y la frecuencia se han combinado con métodos no lineales basados en análisis de fractales, mostrando una diferencia significativa en comparación con los métodos expuestos en la literatura para clasificar tareas de fuerza. Los resultados con amputados mostraron una exactitud de hasta 99,4% en los movimientos individuales de los dedos, superior a la obtenida con los gestos de agarre, de hasta 93,3%. El sistema ha obtenido una tasa de acierto promedio de 86,3% utilizando máquinas de soporte vectorial (SVM), seguido muy de cerca por K-vecinos más cercanos (KNN) con 83,4%. Sin embargo, KNN ha obtenido un mejor rendimiento global, debido a que es más rápido que SVM, lo que representa una ventaja para aplicaciones en tiempo real. El método aquí propuesto ofrece una mayor funcionalidad en el control de prótesis de mano, lo que mejoraría su aceptación por parte de los amputados. Palabras Clave:Señales electromiográficas, prótesis de miembro superior, reconocimiento de patrones, tareas de destreza de la mano.

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