Human forearm myoelectric signals used for robotic hand control

Abstract

Electromyography (EMG) can be used for many applications, one of which is to control prosthetic devices. However, before these EMG signals can be effectively used, they must first pass through a signal processing procedure including amplification, filtering, rectification, and analog-to-digital conversion. This paper proposes a useful circuit design for controlling a robotic hand by means of surface EMG (sEMG) signal acquisition from the forearm. During the project, surface electrodes were placed on five muscles of the forearm. While the various forearm muscles were contracted, the signals obtained were processed through the circuit and converted to a digital signal to control the servomotors of the robotic hand. There are five servomotors to control each finger and thumb of the robotic hand. Pulse-width modulation (PWM) was used to communicate between the microcontroller and servomotors. The data obtained from this project has been analyzed and it was determined that a useful, low-cost method for controlling a robotic hand through the use of sEMG signal acquisition has been achieved.