


In the Netherlands alone, more than two thousand patients undergo a major amputation at the lower limb per year [1]. Amputees rehabilitate and learn to perform daily life activities using their prosthesis, although the prosthesis is not able to act as a complete replacement of the lost body part. The European Horizon 2020 project MyLeg aims at "developing a smart and intuitive osseointegrated transfemoral prosthesis embodying advanced dynamic behaviours [2]. The project consists of several European partners: University of Groningen, University of Bologna, University of Twente, Roessingh Research & Development (RRD), Radboud University Medical Center (RUMC) and Össur and one Australian partner: Norwest Advanced Orthopeadics. RRD is responsible for developing high-level control algorithms to be used for prosthetic control.
Individuals with an amputation do not have direct control over their prosthetic knee and/or ankle [1]. The movements are controlled indirectly by using the stump. This lack of control makes dynamic balance difficult and makes a prosthesis limited in intuitiveness [1]. Proportional or direct control using EMG is investigated in some studies [3]–[5], which allows patients to control their knee or ankle joint. It would be interesting to see if a patient could control his prosthetic device in non-weight bearing situations using EMG, while being robust.
The main question for this assignment is whether a Riemannian Geometry approach is useful for transforming (regressing) EMG signals to joint angle/velocity/acceleration. The Riemannian approach is state of the art of classifying EEG signals1 and the goal of the assignment would be to come up with an Riemannian Geometry approach for transforming EMG signals that would be suited to use in non-weight-bearing situations.
For this assignment we have data from 10 able-bodied subjects, each measured on four separate days. Each subject performed non-weight-bearing activities, such as knee flexion and extension seated on a stool.