Improved Robustness of EMG Pattern Recognition for Transradial Amputees with EMG Features Against Force Level Variations

Feature extraction is an essential process for removing the unwanted part and interference of the Electromyography (EMG) signal, and to extract the useful information hidden in it. Inorder to obtain high performance of Myoelectric Control (MEC), the choice of features plays an important role. The studies carried out earlier to overcome force level variation have used features which are redundant, affecting the robustness and the classification performance. This study's main objective is to assess a database's performance consisting of nine upper limb amputee subjects with EMG data recorded at three different force levels when six motions were classified using twenty different time domain features that are frequently found in the literature. Training is carried out at one force level, and the other two unknown force levels are used for testing. Out of the twenty features, the one that is the most stable is displayed for each force level. The results show that root mean square (RMS) feature outperformed other features for training at low and medium force levels, and Wilson amplitude (WAMP) feature for training at a high force level, when compared with the most widely used linear discriminant analysis (LDA) classifier. The average classification accuracy for the nine amputee subjects trained with the RMS feature at low and medium force levels was 42% and 51.78% percent, respectively. For high force level, when trained using WAMP feature, an accuracy of 46.78% has been obtained. The features are verified using histogram plots. This study will help select those features which are not important for robust classification of hand movements.