Abstract
Sonomyography (SMG) or ultrasound imaging-based estimation of muscle contraction has recently gained popularity as a non-invasive alternative to surface electromyography (EMG). SMG overcomes several limitations inherent to EMG such as poor signal to noise ratio, muscle crosstalk, and limited spatiotemporal resolution. These shortcomings of EMG limit their utility and ability to provide dexterous control of modern multiarticulated biomechatronic devices such as prosthetic arms, and exoskeletons. Sonomyography is sensitive to detect muscle activity from deep seated muscles in real-time, enabling robust and intuitive modality for human machine interfacing. SMG based muscle activity estimation techniques typically utilize complex features such as fiber pennation angle, muscle boundary tracking etc. from B-mode ultrasound images. These features are extracted manually or by using computationally intensive algorithms. These techniques are also affected by drift in the ultrasound images due to probe shifts. In this paper, we developed a simple, feature-free and computationally efficient technique to estimate isometric force from B-mode ultrasound images. We developed and compared two methods to compensate for drift in the estimated ultrasound-derived isometric force. We demonstrated that the sonomyographic estimate of force follows a highly non-linear, inverse exponential relationship which enables highly sensitive estimation of isometric force at lower muscle contraction levels. These results are in agreement with previously reported studies using muscle architectural parameters derived from ultrasound images. Hence, our technique provides a simple and efficient method for estimation of isometric force directly from B-mode ultrasound images. We believe that these results will have wide applicability in biomechanical modeling of muscle activity, and biomechatronic control.
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Kamatham, A.T., Alzamani, M., Dockum, A., Sikdar, S., Mukherjee, B. (2022). A Simple, Drift Compensated Method for Estimation of Isometric Force Using Sonomyography. In: Suryadevara, N.K., George, B., Jayasundera, K.P., Roy, J.K., Mukhopadhyay, S.C. (eds) Sensing Technology. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 886. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98886-9_28
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