Dynamic Mode Decomposition with Sonomyography and Electromyography for Predictive Modeling of Lower Limb Exoskeleton Walking

Abstract

The nonlinear dynamics required to model walking with multi-joint lower limb exoskeleton assistance results in high computational burden. To address this, we derive a Koopman-based linearized model of the human-exoskeleton system using electromyography and ultrasound-derived metrics of volitional muscle activity during exoskeleton-assisted walking. Data are collected from one participant with spinal cord injury (SCI) and two participants with no disabilities. Various electromyography and ultrasound-derived features in addition to normalized motor currents are used to derive predictive models, and we identify which muscle activation metrics produce the most accurate model for each subject. For both subjects without disabilities, the most accurate model uses only ultrasound-derived echogenicity as a metric of muscle activity, while the most accurate model for the subject with SCI uses only EMG wave length. Furthermore, the inclusion of ground reaction force increases the prediction accuracy of all models for one participant with no disabilities while decreasing the accuracy of most models for the participant with SCI. For all subjects, the most accurate subject-speclfic linear model has a root-mean-square error (averaged across limb segment angles) of < 8°.