Robot Kinesthetic Teaching Enhanced by sEMG-based Estimation of Muscle Co-Contraction and Bio-Feedback

sEMG signals are exploited for unsupervised estimation of the co-contraction level of forearm's muscles. In this way, by also exploiting a feedback based on a vibrotactile bracelet, the ability of operators in stiffening their hand was evaluated during kinesthetic teaching, in order to regulate the estimated co-contraction level to (i) match reference levels and (ii) activate the opening/closing of a gripper, i.e. in using their myoelectric signals enhance robot kinesthetic teaching operations. Experiments were carried out. The results provide positive outcomes on the intuitiveness and effectiveness of the proposed system and approach.