# Physics-informed Deep Learning for Muscle Force Prediction with Unlabeled sEMG Signals

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.04213 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04213/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 7 of its 44 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 5 Dec 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [The Deep Ritz method: A deep learning-based numerical algorithm for solving variational problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.00211/) (2017)
- [Learning the solution operator of parametric partial differential equations with physics-informed DeepOnets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.10974/) (2021)
- [An Energy Approach to the Solution of Partial Differential Equations in Computational Mechanics via Machine Learning: Concepts, Implementation and Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.10407/) (2019)
- [Physics-informed Deep Learning for Musculoskeletal Modelling: Predicting Muscle Forces and Joint Kinematics from Surface EMG](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.01435/) (2022)
- [Thermodynamics-informed neural networks for physically realistic mixed reality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.13414/) (2022)
- [Boosting Personalised Musculoskeletal Modelling with Physics-informed Knowledge Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.12315/) (2022)
- [A Multi-Resolution Physics-Informed Recurrent Neural Network: Formulation and Application to Musculoskeletal Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16593/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Fatigue-PINN: Physics-Informed Fatigue-Driven Motion Modulation and Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.19056/) (2025)
- [Deep Muscle EMG construction using A Physics-Integrated Deep Learning approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.05201/) (2025)
- [Physics-Embedded Neural Networks for sEMG-based Continuous Motion Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.22459/) (2025)
- [Physics-Informed Learning for Human Whole-Body Kinematics Prediction via Sparse IMUs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.25704/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Computational biomechanical analysis plays a pivotal role in understanding and improving human movements and physical functions. Although physics-based modeling methods can interpret the dynamic interaction between the neural drive to muscle dynamics and joint kinematics, they suffer from high computational latency. In recent years, data-driven methods have emerged as a promising alternative due to their fast execution speed, but label information is still required during training, which is not easy to acquire in practice. To tackle these issues, this paper presents a novel physics-informed deep learning method to predict muscle forces without any label information during model training. In addition, the proposed method could also identify personalized muscle-tendon parameters. To achieve this, the Hill muscle model-based forward dynamics is embedded into the deep neural network as the additional loss to further regulate the behavior of the deep neural network. Experimental validations on the wrist joint from six healthy subjects are performed, and a fully connected neural network (FNN) is selected to implement the proposed method. The predicted results of muscle forces show comparable or even lower root mean square error (RMSE) and higher coefficient of determination compared with baseline methods, which have to use the labeled surface electromyography (sEMG) signals, and it can also identify muscle-tendon parameters accurately, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed physics-informed deep learning method.