Machine learning algorithm to extract properties of ATE phantoms from microwave measurements

Abstract

The Muscle Analyzer System (MAS) project wants to create a standalone microwave device that can assess the muscle quality, called the MAS device. To achieve that an algorithm that can derive the properties of skin, fat and muscle from the measurements is needed. This paper presents a machine learning algorithm that aims to do precisely that. The algorithm relies on first predicting the skin using the data from the MAS device, then predicting the fat again using the data from the MAS but also the predicted skin value and lastly the muscle is predicted using the microwave data together with the skin and fat predictions. Data have been collected in phantom experiments, materials that mimick the dielectric properties of human tissues. The algorithm is trained to predict the properties of said phantoms. The results show that the prediction for skin thickness works well, the fat thickness prediction is okay but the muscle prediction struggles. This is partly due to the error from the skin and fat layers are propagated to the muscle layer and partly because the muscle layer is farthest away from the sensor, which makes getting information from that layer harder.