Online-compatible EMG onset detection: benchmarking common detectors under large signal variability

Introduction Muscle activation timing is commonly used inbiomechanics to analyse motor control strategies andinfer movement intent (e.g., to trigger assistivedevices). Indeed, because of the electromechanicaldelay (EMD), surface electromyogram (EMG) canprecede force and motion by tens of milliseconds.However, robust online onset detection remainsdifficult under real-life variability: a fixed parameterset must cover a wide working range, while causalprocessing adds delay and makes rejection oferroneous detections more challenging (Carvalho et al.2023). Moreover, most detectors are evaluated offline,and validation protocols vary widely, whichcomplicates comparisons across studies (Carvalho etal. 2023).[…]