Estimation of the Torques Produced by Human Upper Limb during Eating Activities Using NARX-NN

ABSTRACT

Upper limb movement disorders significantly hamper the ability of impaired to perform basic activities of daily living (ADL). Eating, without doubt, is one of the essential ADLs necessary for human survival. To develop a rehabilitation system meant specifically to assist the hand during eating, an in-depth knowledge of hand motion and the forces/torques produced, during eating is vital. Since, Human Upper Limb (HUL) motion is highly dexterous, its dynamic model can be beneficial for predicting the torques during different eating activities. Four degrees of freedom (DOF), dynamic model of HUL including wrist and elbow joints, focusing on elbow and wrist flexion/extension, forearm pronation/supination, wrist flexion/extension and wrist adduction/abduction is formulated, using Nonlinear AutoRegressive network with eXogenous input Neural Network (NARX-NN), during different eating activities. We conducted an experimental validation involving five different food types and using two types of cutleries. Torque prediction accuracy of the model is determined by comparing predicted values to that of measured load cell torques, for all eating activities and using Root mean square error (RMSE) as a statistical measure, to test the model performance. Torques predicted by the model track the measured torque efficiently.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Education, Malaysia, for supporting this research under the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme [FRGS/1/2014/TK03/UIAM/02/8].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author biographies

ZAKIA HUSSAIN received the B.E degree (Hons.) in Mechatronics engineering from the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) in 2015 and Master of Science in Mechatronics engineering from IIUM in 2019. She is currently pursuing her Ph. D. in School of Engineering at Monash University Malaysia.

N. Z. Azlan received her bachelor’s degree (Hons.) in Mechatronics Engineering from International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in 2003. She pursued her Masters’s and Ph.D. studies in Mechanical and Control Engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. She is currently a lecturer at IIUM.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia [FRGS/1/2014/TK03/UIAM/02/8].