Muscular contraction onset detection using surface electromyography to command functional stimulators

Aiming to detect the muscular contraction onset of a paretic muscle through the electromyography signal, an algorithm based on the identification of motor unit action potential was implemented. The implemented method was evaluated comparing it with another reported in the bibliography (control method) and with marks of muscular contraction onset established by an expert. Both techniques were applied to healthy muscle signals corrupted with additive noise at different levels of SNR and paretic muscle signals. Although the proposed algorithm and the control method performed the detection with similar precision, the algorithm presented in this work showed minor errors and deviations from to the mark of the expert.