Manual and semi-automatic determination of elbow angle-independent parameters for a model of the biceps brachii distal tendon based on ultrasonic imaging

Mechtenberg M, Grimmelsmann N, Meyer HG, Schneider A. Manual and semi-automatic determination of elbow angle-independent parameters for a model of the biceps brachii distal tendon based on ultrasonic imaging. PLoS ONE . 2022;17(10): e0275128.Tendons consist of passive soft tissue with non linear material properties. They play a key role in force transmission from muscle to skeletal structure. The properties of tendons have been extensively examined in vitro. In this work, a non linear model of the distal biceps brachii tendon was parameterized based on measurements of myotendinous junction displacements in vivo at different load forces and elbow angles. The myotendinous junction displacement was extracted from ultrasound B-mode images within an experimental setup which also allowed for the retrieval of the exerted load forces as well as the elbow joint angles. To quantify the myotendinous junction movement based on visual features from ultrasound images, a manual and an automatic method were developed. The performance of both methods was compared. By means of exemplary data from three subjects, reliable fits of the tendon model were achieved. Further, different aspects of the non linear tendon model generated in this way could be reconciled with individual experiments from literature

Three-Dimensional (3D) Printing of Polymer-Metal Hybrid Materials by Fused Deposition Modeling

Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is a three-dimensional (3D) printing technology that is usually performed with polymers that are molten in a printer nozzle and placed line by line on the printing bed or the previous layer, respectively. Nowadays, hybrid materials combining polymers with functional materials are also commercially available. Especially combinations of polymers with metal particles result in printed objects with interesting optical and mechanical properties. The mechanical properties of objects printed with two of these metal-polymer blends were compared to common poly (lactide acid) (PLA) printed objects. Tensile tests and bending tests show that hybrid materials mostly containing bronze have significantly reduced mechanical properties. Tensile strengths of the 3D-printed objects were unexpectedly nearly identical with those of the original filaments, indicating sufficient quality of the printing process. Our investigations show that while FDM printing allows for producing objects with mechanical properties similar to the original materials, metal-polymer blends cannot be used for the rapid manufacturing of objects necessitating mechanical strength

Evaluation of sEMG Signal Features and Segmentation Parameters for Limb Movement Prediction Using a Feedforward Neural Network

Limb movement prediction based on surface electromyography (sEMG) for the control of wearable robots, such as active orthoses and exoskeletons, is a promising approach since it provides an intuitive control interface for the user. Further, sEMG signals contain early information about the onset and course of limb movements for feedback control. Recent studies have proposed machine learning-based modeling approaches for limb movement prediction using sEMG signals, which do not necessarily require domain knowledge of the underlying physiological system and its parameters. However, there is limited information on which features of the measured sEMG signals provide the best prediction accuracy of machine learning models trained with these data. In this work, the accuracy of elbow joint movement prediction based on sEMG data using a simple feedforward neural network after training with different single- and multi-feature sets and data segmentation parameters was compared. It was shown that certain combinations of time-domain and frequency-domain features, as well as segmentation parameters of sEMG data, improve the prediction accuracy of the neural network as compared to the use of a standard feature set from the literature

Evaluation of sEMG Signal Features and Segmentation Parameters for Limb Movement Prediction Using a Feedforward Neural Network

Limb movement prediction based on surface electromyography (sEMG) for the control of wearable robots, such as active orthoses and exoskeletons, is a promising approach since it provides an intuitive control interface for the user. Further, sEMG signals contain early information about the onset and course of limb movements for feedback control. Recent studies have proposed machine learning-based modeling approaches for limb movement prediction using sEMG signals, which do not necessarily require domain knowledge of the underlying physiological system and its parameters. However, there is limited information on which features of the measured sEMG signals provide the best prediction accuracy of machine learning models trained with these data. In this work, the accuracy of elbow joint movement prediction based on sEMG data using a simple feedforward neural network after training with different single- and multi-feature sets and data segmentation parameters was compared. It was shown that certain combinations of time-domain and frequency-domain features, as well as segmentation parameters of sEMG data, improve the prediction accuracy of the neural network as compared to the use of a standard feature set from the literature

sEMG-based prediction of human forearm movements utilizing a biomechanical model based on individual anatomical/ physiological measures and a reduced set of optimization parameters

Grimmelsmann N, Mechtenberg M, Schenck W, Meyer HG, Schneider A. sEMG-based prediction of human forearm movements utilizing a biomechanical model based on individual anatomical/ physiological measures and a reduced set of optimization parameters. PLoS ONE. 2023;18(8): e0289549.For assistive devices such as active orthoses, exoskeletons or other close-to-body robotic-systems, the immediate prediction of biological limb movements based on biosignals in the respective control system can be used to enable intuitive operation also by untrained users e.g. in healthcare, rehabilitation or industrial scenarios. Surface electromyography (sEMG) signals from the muscles that drive the limbs can be measured before the actual movement occurs and, hence, can be used as source for predicting limb movements. The aim of this work was to create a model that can be adapted to a new user or movement scenario with little measurement and computing effort. Therefore, a biomechanical model is presented that predicts limb movements of the human forearm based on easy to measure sEMG signals of the main muscles involved in forearm actuation (lateral and long head of triceps and short and long head of biceps). The model has 42 internal parameters of which 37 were attributed to 8 individually measured physiological measures (location of acromion at the shoulder, medial/lateral epicondyles as well as olecranon at the elbow, and styloid processes of radius/ulna at the wrist; maximum muscle forces of biceps and triceps). The remaining 5 parameters are adapted to specific movement conditions in an optimization process. The model was tested in an experimental study with 31 subjects in which the prediction quality of the model was assessed. The quality of the movement prediction was evaluated by using the normalized mean absolute error (nMAE) for two arm postures (lower, upper), two load conditions (2 kg, 4 kg) and two movement velocities (slow, fast). For the resulting 8 experimental combinations the nMAE varied between nMAE = 0.16 and nMAE = 0.21 (lower numbers better). An additional quality score (QS) was introduced that allows direct comparison between different movements. This score ranged from QS = 0.25 to QS = 0.40 (higher numbers better) for the experimental combinations. The above formulated aim was achieved with good prediction quality by using only 8 individual measurements (easy to collect body dimensions) and the subsequent optimization of only 5 parameters. At the same time, just easily accessible sEMG measurement locations are used to enable simple integration, e.g. in exoskeletons. This biomechanical model does not compete with models that measure all sEMG signals of the muscle heads involved in order to achieve the highest possible prediction quality. Copyright: © 2023 Grimmelsmann et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Block diagram for each computational method of feature extraction is shown.

The computed features are from left to right: the mytendinous junction, bone line and bone reference point. The mytendinous junction is tracked with a neural network based on the MobileNetV2 algorithm. The bone line is tracked via Hough-Line-Transformation. The bone reference point is tracked by a method based on the Lucas-Kanade algorithm.</p

(A) Sketch of the implemented elbow moment arm model with (B) example data of subject 0.

(A) Schematic depiction of the applied biomechanical model of muscle and tendon in the elbow joint. kT1 and kT2 are non linear spring elements representing the lower and upper biceps brachii tendons. The shoulder and lower arm insertions are also marked ( and ). These points were determined based on anatomic landmarks as formulated in Eq (37). The elbow joint was abstracted as revolute joint. It was located at . The effective lever length of subject 0 is shown in (B) over the elbow joint angle Θ. The maximal effective lever length is marked at (Θ = 93.3∘, leff = 5.2cm).</p

Effect of Caffeine Copigmentation of Anthocyanin Dyes on DSSC Efficiency

Caffeine is known to influence the absorbance spectrum of anthocyanin dyes. Such dyes are often used as sensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Natural dyes, like anthocyanins, yield only small DSSC efficiencies, but are of high interest since they are usually non-toxic and inexpensive. Here we report on the influence of copigmentation of anthocyanins, taken from commercially available tea, with caffeine. In this way, the efficiencies were increased for measurements with a solar simulator as well as with ambient light. In addition, the well-known pH dependence of the efficiency of DSSCs dyed with anthocyanins was shifted&mdash;while a pH value of 1&ndash;2 was ideal for pure anthocyanins used as dyes, a higher pH value of 2&ndash;3 was sufficient to reach the maximum efficiencies for caffeine-copigmented dyes. This means that instead of reducing the pH value by adding an acid, adding caffeine can also be used to increase the efficiency of DSSCs prepared with anthocyanins. Finally, a comparison of several literature sources dealing with anthocyanin-based DSSCs allows for evaluation of our results with respect to the work of other groups

Tendon displacement over wrist force for all elbow angles is shwon in case of (A) manual and (B) (semi-) automatic data extraction, with (C) a comparison of both methods.

The length of the junction movement parallel to the bone of subject 0 is shown for the manually extracted data as depicted in (A) and for the automatically extracted data in (B). In both cases the mytendinous junction movement parallel to the bone is shown over the wrist force Fw for all elbow angles Θ (cmp. Eq (13)). The bone line angle as well as the evaluated frames are adopted from the manual evaluation as described in Eq (31). In (C) the difference between the automatically extracted data and the manually extracted data of subject 0 is shown.</p

Fig 4 -

In (A) the lateral view of the experimental setup in form of an anatomical sketch is shown. An ultrasonic probe (SP) is used to image a cross-section of the distal part of the upper arm. The cross-section contains the distal tendon of the biceps brachii (BicT). Simultaneously, the force generated by the arm is measured with a force sensor (FS) near the wrist (cmp. Fig 3). The biceps brachii (Bic), its long head (BicLH), its short head (BicSH), brachialis (Bra) and humerus (Hum) are also labeled. In (B) the ultrasonic images of two orthogonal cross-sections are depicted. The orientation of both imaging planes are marked in a sketch on the right side, which shows the anterior perspective on the Bic and Bra. Orientation I was the only imaging plane used during the presented study (cmp. (A)). The structures of the Bic are marked in red. The junction of Bic and BicT was observable in this view (white cross) as well as part of the aponeurosis (BicAP). Imaging plane II is orthogonal to imaging plane I. The furcation (wing-like structure) of the aponeurosis was observable (marked in orange) as well as different parts of the Bra muscle group—the brachialis deep head (BraDH) in green and the brachialis superficial head (BraSH) in blue.</p