Estimating Human Muscular Fatigue in Dynamic Collaborative Robotic Tasks with Learning-Based Models

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Hauptverfasser: Kiki, Feras, Niaz, Pouya P., Madani, Alireza, Basdogan, Cagatay
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Kiki, Feras
Niaz, Pouya P.
Madani, Alireza
Basdogan, Cagatay
author_facet Kiki, Feras
Niaz, Pouya P.
Madani, Alireza
Basdogan, Cagatay
contents Assessing human muscle fatigue is critical for optimizing performance and safety in physical human-robot interaction(pHRI). This work presents a data-driven framework to estimate fatigue in dynamic, cyclic pHRI using arm-mounted surface electromyography(sEMG). Subject-specific machine-learning regression models(Random Forest, XGBoost, and Linear Regression predict the fraction of cycles to fatigue(FCF) from three frequency-domain and one time-domain EMG features, and are benchmarked against a convolutional neural network(CNN) that ingests spectrograms of filtered EMG. Framing fatigue estimation as regression (rather than classification) captures continuous progression toward fatigue, supporting earlier detection, timely intervention, and adaptive robot control. In experiments with ten participants, a collaborative robot under admittance control guided repetitive lateral (left-right) end-effector motions until muscular fatigue. Average FCF RMSE across participants was 20.8+/-4.3% for the CNN, 23.3+/-3.8% for Random Forest, 24.8+/-4.5% for XGBoost, and 26.9+/-6.1% for Linear Regression. To probe cross-task generalization, one participant additionally performed unseen vertical (up-down) and circular repetitions; models trained only on lateral data were tested directly and largely retained accuracy, indicating robustness to changes in movement direction, arm kinematics, and muscle recruitment, while Linear Regression deteriorated. Overall, the study shows that both feature-based ML and spectrogram-based DL can estimate remaining work capacity during repetitive pHRI, with the CNN delivering the lowest error and the tree-based models close behind. The reported transfer to new motion patterns suggests potential for practical fatigue monitoring without retraining for every task, improving operator protection and enabling fatigue-aware shared autonomy, for safer fatigue-adaptive pHRI control.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_15684
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Estimating Human Muscular Fatigue in Dynamic Collaborative Robotic Tasks with Learning-Based Models
Kiki, Feras
Niaz, Pouya P.
Madani, Alireza
Basdogan, Cagatay
Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Human-Computer Interaction
Systems and Control
Signal Processing
Assessing human muscle fatigue is critical for optimizing performance and safety in physical human-robot interaction(pHRI). This work presents a data-driven framework to estimate fatigue in dynamic, cyclic pHRI using arm-mounted surface electromyography(sEMG). Subject-specific machine-learning regression models(Random Forest, XGBoost, and Linear Regression predict the fraction of cycles to fatigue(FCF) from three frequency-domain and one time-domain EMG features, and are benchmarked against a convolutional neural network(CNN) that ingests spectrograms of filtered EMG. Framing fatigue estimation as regression (rather than classification) captures continuous progression toward fatigue, supporting earlier detection, timely intervention, and adaptive robot control. In experiments with ten participants, a collaborative robot under admittance control guided repetitive lateral (left-right) end-effector motions until muscular fatigue. Average FCF RMSE across participants was 20.8+/-4.3% for the CNN, 23.3+/-3.8% for Random Forest, 24.8+/-4.5% for XGBoost, and 26.9+/-6.1% for Linear Regression. To probe cross-task generalization, one participant additionally performed unseen vertical (up-down) and circular repetitions; models trained only on lateral data were tested directly and largely retained accuracy, indicating robustness to changes in movement direction, arm kinematics, and muscle recruitment, while Linear Regression deteriorated. Overall, the study shows that both feature-based ML and spectrogram-based DL can estimate remaining work capacity during repetitive pHRI, with the CNN delivering the lowest error and the tree-based models close behind. The reported transfer to new motion patterns suggests potential for practical fatigue monitoring without retraining for every task, improving operator protection and enabling fatigue-aware shared autonomy, for safer fatigue-adaptive pHRI control.
title Estimating Human Muscular Fatigue in Dynamic Collaborative Robotic Tasks with Learning-Based Models
topic Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Human-Computer Interaction
Systems and Control
Signal Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.15684