International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)

Volume 72– No.14, June 2013

2-d Robotic Arm Control using EMG Signal

Aditya Veer Singh Rana Ridhi Aggarwal

Centre for Development of Centre for Development of
Advanced Computing, Mohali, Advanced Computing, Mohali,
Punjab, India Punjab, India

ABSTRACT extract it to guide and control the robotic arm. Thus developed
In the presented work, a robotic arm is controlled using the sensory/control system would then serve as a test bed for the
EMG signal acquired from the electrodes attached to the future development of the multifunctional prosthetic arm, also
human arm. The EMG signals are acquired from three called “The new generation prosthetic arm”.
different muscle groups of the upper forearm. The EMG
signal is very noisy and of the order of micro volts. Faithful
extraction of the EMG signal is the prime objective in the
2. EMG SIGNAL
presented work. The acquired signal is then fed to signal The EMG signal is a small electrical current that is generated
conditioning unit consisting of signal acquisition, when a muscle is contracted. Since the EMG signal levels are
amplification, rectification and final filtration. The output of too low to be directly captured by the computer, it is required
the signal conditioning unit is then converted to digital signal to amplify the signal to a TTL level (which ranges between -5
using a 16-bit serial ADC. The digitized signal is used as volts and +5 volts). With the properly amplified EMG signal,
feedback and control signal for final control of the robotic the computer can read and store the data in a file format or to
arm. The robotic arm is attached to the shaft of the stepper use EMG readings in real time. The amplifier that is
motor for motion. Stepper motor is interfaced using employed in the reading and recording of EMG signals must
microcontroller. There may be more than one stepper motor to be specifically designed to read biological electrical signals.
give multi-dimensional motion to robotic arm. It can be Consequently, many critical factors must be considered. For
assumed that with one single stepper motor, ideally we can example, noise and artifact problems could distort the signal.
have 360/θ no. of positions (θ being the step angle). Presently Additional DC current could also add offset to the EMG
we have used only two stepper motors for up-down motion at signal. Providing an adequate ground reference is also an
two joints thereby enabling to give (360/θ)2 no. of positions. important problem. Finally, because the equipment will be
attached to the forearm during the EMG recording, the size of
General Terms the device should also be taken into consideration.
Robotic Arm, Acquisition, EMG, Signal Acquisition.
The measurement of the electrical activity of the muscle is the
Keywords result of a signal generated in the brain which is transmitted
SCU Signal Conditioning Unit, ADC Analog to Digital through the nervous system to the motor neuron attached to
Converter, EMG Electromyography, Amplification, the muscle fibers in the muscle. The motor neurons resulting
Degrees of Freedom, Stepper Motors, Control Algorithm. in a depolarization/repolarization wave throughout the muscle
fiber. This wave creates an action potential in the muscle
1. INTRODUCTION fibers resulting in the movement of electrical charges. This
Electromyography referred to as measuring muscle activation electrical activity produces an electrical signal in the muscle
via electric potential. This paper presents the non-invasive which can be picked up by well-placed electrodes on the
method of measuring electromyogram signal from the human surface of the skin. The acquired signal is EMG signal [2].
forearm muscle and then digitized signal is used as feedback This new signal consists of a series of spikes whose amplitude
and control signal for final control of the robotic arm. The depends on the amount of force delivered by the biceps–the
research has been conducted on the control of the multi- stronger the contraction of the muscle, the larger the
functional prosthetic arm through electromyography (EMG) amplitude of the EMG signal. The frequency of the spikes is
signals from the muscles of forearm. The research is inspired the firing rate of the motor neurons. Since the amplitude of the
by the previous work study in the area of usage of EMG EMG signal is directly related to the force exerted by the
signals for pattern classification [1]. The research at CDAC, muscle, it is used to determine the force signal sent to the
Mohali involves several issues, such as real-time recording of robotic arm.
EMG signals, performing feature extraction and pattern
classification, stepper motor-control of hand actuators and 3. SIGNAL CONDITIONING UNIT
interfacing the computer with the external devices. The
Muscle tissues conduct electrical potential similar to the way
success of feature extraction depends on the quality of
nerves do and these electrical impulses are called action
measured EMG signals. As the pattern classification very
potentials. The information present in the muscle action
much depends on the effectiveness of the feature extraction.
potential can be recorded by applying the surface EMG
In other words the EMG signal acquisition is a precondition
method. It is important to consider two main issues when the
for feature extraction. The main objective of this paper is to
detection and recording of EMG signals occur. The first is the
design and develop hardware and software for measuring
signal-to-noise ratio. It is the ratio of energy in the EMG
EMG signals from human forearm muscles in real time and

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 72– No.14, June 2013

signals to the energy in the noise signal. Noise is something 3.3 Signal Conditioning-Amplification
that is not desired in a pure EMG signal. The second one is The signal acquisition phase measures very small signals
the distortion of the signal. The EMG signal is picked up by containing low frequency noise. Thus, the output of INA106
electrode and then amplified. It usually needs thousand times is then fed to the operational amplifier TL072 [6]. The signal
of amplification before it could be shown on a display and can conditioning phase amplify the signal and also inverts it to fix
be recorded. The point of interest of the signal is the the required gain. A capacitor is incorporated to remove DC
amplitude, which has a range between 0 to 20 millivolts (peak error offset in a signal.
to peak). The frequency of an EMG signal is between 0 to 500
Hz. However, the usable energy of EMG signal is between 50
to 150 Hz. Many dependent factors could affect surface EMG. 3.4 Signal Conditioning-Rectification
Thus to avoid the distortion of the signal a signal conditioning This phase is used to rectify the signal (using an active full-
unit is incorporated by utilizing an amplifier circuit, wave rectifier). The rectifier takes the negative portion of the
Multiplexer, Filter and a buffer amplifier. signal and turns it positive so the entire signal falls within the
Five steps include in the development of signal conditioning positive voltage region. Operational amplifier TL072 is used
unit: with two zener diodes for rectifying the signal to settle the
suitable level.
3.1 Electrode Positioning
For electrode placement four muscles are involved: 3.5 Signal Conditioning-Final Signal
The analog signal is obtained by ADC unit and a digital signal
a) Flexor Carpi Ulnaris–wrist flexion with ulnar is passed to microcontroller which requires constant 5 volts
deviation. supply for its operation to control motors. Thus, readying the
b) Palmaris longus–assist in wrist flexion. final signal and passing it before to ADC unit, an active low
c) Extensor Carpi Radialis–assist in extension and pass filter is used to smooth the signal.
radial abduction of wrist.
d) Extensor digitorum–extension of four fingers and 3.6 Signal Processing-ADC-LTC-1867
aids in extension of wrist (forward/backward).
The microcontroller P89V51RD2 uses TTL standard level
For this placement body surface electrodes are used and are
analog interfaces (+5 volt and -5 volts). An amplification of
placed in the respective muscles for the extraction of the EMG
the signal is needed to boost the signal up to a required level.
signal [3]. Figure 1 showing the proper positioning of
LTC-1867 [7] which is a 16-bit Analog to Digital converter
electrodes. There are various factors such as electrodes shape,
and its signal-to-noise ratio is typically 89dB and is used to
sizes, positions, orientations and inter electrode distance
provide rectified signals to the computer on chip to further use
which are responsible for surface EMG recording. [4] For the
the feedback and control signal for final control of robotic
EMG electrodes it is necessary to have proper contact with the
arm. The shaft of the robotic arm is attached to the robotic
skin so that a stable transition can be achieved with low noise
arm to obtain its multi-dimensional motion.
signal. Being in low impedance we have used Ag/AgCl
electrodes which are pre-gelled electrodes to reduce electrode-
skin impedance. To avoid destabilization of the electric layer
and difference in impedances inter electrode distance is fixed 4. ARM CONTROL ALGORITHM
using elastic bands and tapes. In the presented work, it is planned to design a robotic arm
with two joints control. Therefore, we can have maximum
positions computed as:
Say Step Angle, θ = 7.50. No. of position availed by one
stepper Motor = 360/7.5 = 48.
Therefore, with two stepper motors at two joints, we can have
2304 (=48x48) possible locations where the robotic arm can
have access ideally. However, some positions are not
accessible like in very close vicinity of the lower joint.

5. POSITION COMPUTATION
Fig 1: Electrode Placement No. of positions of the robotic arm can be illustrated by using
the robot arm free body diagram (FBD). The Denavit-
3.2 Signal Acquisition Hartenberg (DH) Convention is the accepted method of
The signal acquisition phase is used to measure body‟s drawing robot arms in FBD's [8]. There are only two motions
nervous system‟s electrical impulses to activate muscle a joint could make: translate and rotate. There are only three
fibers. Signal acquired by the electrodes are fed into an axes this could happen on: x, y, and z (out of plane). One of a
operational differential amplifier via wires to boost the level robotic arm functions is to move to a specified location or
of the input signal to match the requirements of the along a predetermined path so it can perform a task [9]. In the
instrumentation system or to match the range of the analog-to- proposed work, motion is consist of the robot itself moving, or
digital convertor, thus increasing the resolution and sensitivity of an articulated arm being actuated from a fixed pivot
of the measurement. Differential operational amplifier position. Considering the problem of controlling the motion of
INA106 with precision gain of 10 is used for the amplification a very simple articulated arm, a two-segment arm that can
which have high input impedance and high CMRR to neglect move only in the x-y plane and pivots about the position x=0,
the unwanted signals [5]. y=0. A stepper motor at (0,0) is attached to the first arm
segment and controls its angle with respect to the x-axis. A
second stepper motor is attached to a second arm segment and

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 72– No.14, June 2013

controls its angle with respect to the x-axis. The computation

is based on joint rotation, length of each link and their weight,
Keil P89V51RD2
distance between each stepper motor as the length of the
linkage is critical to the mechanical design and computation μvision-4
Microcontroller Power
of positions.
Supply

6. DISTANCE IN ANY DIRECTION Programming

Considering the two degree of freedom of two respective Generic 8051
joints the maximum distance in any direction is proportional Development
to the joint angles of the robotic arm controlled by stepper
Board Robotic
motor of two joints. Due to the nonlinearity of the model Flash
equations and the large number of unknown parameters per Magic Arm
muscle that makes the overall analysis rather difficult. Similar mounted
studies [10] that used musculoskeletal models, focusing on a Programmer
limited number of muscles and actuated Degree of Freedoms.
over
The distance in any direction can be achieved by the stepper
kinematics of manipulators which assists the geometrical and motors
time-based properties of the motion. Manipulators with their EMG
links allow relative motion of neighboring links which are
connected by joints to the stepper motor. These joints are Signal
usually instrumented to allow the relative position of
neighboring links to be measured and the number of
independent position variables that would have to be specified
in order to locate all distance in respective directions. Fig 2: Control of Robotic Arm

7. STEPPER MOTOR INTERFACE

The stepper motors used in this were 6 pin unipolar ones. Two
pins are connected to the 12 V DC power supply and the other
four pins are connected to the microcontroller. Figure 2 shows
the block diagram for the control of robotic arm using the P89V51RD2 ULN
Stepper
P89V51RD2 microcontroller. The other four pins belonged to
the two coils of the stepper motor. That is each coil contains Microcontroller 2803 Motor
two wires. Two wires of the same coil should not be given the
same pulse. That is if wire 1a of coil is given high pulse, 1b
wire should be given low pulse and vice versa. The order in
which the pulses are given to the wires determines the
direction of rotation of the motor shaft. ULN 2803 is used to
drive the stepper motor from the microcontroller. The COM
pin number 10 is connected to 12 volt supply for driving Joints and
motors which have back emf in coils. Programming for the Links Control
stepper motors was done in Keil μvision-4 software. Coding
in P89V51RD2 is done in C format and it was burnt to the
microcontroller using the Flash Magic programmer from
NXP. The Flash Magic programmer was connected with the
computer and the program was loaded into it using the Flash
Magic software. Then the program is stored into the Fig 3: Block Diagram of Stepper Motor Interfacing
P89V51RD2 microcontroller using the flash burner. Port D is
connected to one stepper motor and Port C is connected to
another one. 12V DC power supply is given to both the 8. MECHANICAL CONSTRUCTION
development board and the two stepper motors through a 12 V For the construction of robotic arm nylon rods of thickness
DC adaptor. Later, the hardware parts are built and are 1cm are used. The length of the rod links is critical to the
connected together and programming is done and loaded into mechanical design. If the links are too long, the stepper
the microcontroller. Finally, power supply is given and the motors due to not having enough torque cannot lift the load. If
system is operated. Figure 3 showing block diagram for the rod links are short, it will reduce the arm reach and motors
stepper motor interfacing. might not move. Thus, rods are cut according to the required
shape and dimensions. The construction also maintains low
costing parameters for the final assembly in the mechanical
design. The joints and links are made by installing using
stepper motors and gears handling a combined torque of 12
kg-cm to lift the entire arm. The motors capacity to lift the
loads is specified in terms of torque
(kg-cm/N-m/oz-in)

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 72– No.14, June 2013

The torque equation is specified as follows:

Torque = Force × Distance × Sin Ө
Where, „Ө‟ represents the angle between the „Force‟ acting on
the shaft and „Distance‟ represent how far the force is applied
from the centre of the shaft.

9. RESULTS
The EMG signal received at microcontroller is a 16-bit ADC
ranging from 0 - 65535. However, multi thresholds {T1, T2,
T3, … Tn} can be selected in order to control/activate the
robotic arm at different positions and for different
states/movement like MOVE, STOP, LEFT, RIGHT, UP and
DOWN. The positions are determined using the two joints
degree of freedom shown in Table 1.

Threshold T1 < 500 MOTOR STOP

Threshold 501 < T2 < 1000 MOVE
Threshold 1001 < T3 < 1500 MOVE LEFT
Threshold 1501 < T3 < 2000 MOVE RIGHT
Threshold 2001 < T3 < 2500 MOVE UP
Threshold 2501 < T3 < 3000 MOVE DOWN
Signal Acquisition-Rectification
Table 1. Robotic arm at different positions.

The motion is intended to obtain the different states and

number of positions is either using stepper motors as well as
using servo motors. The arm may be controlled using the
above given thresholds and can be extended for any
application.

8.1 Experimentation Results

The extraction of EMG signal is processed to operate the 2-
dimensional control of robotic arm and obtaining 3 Degree‟s
of Freedom. Some results obtained on CRO showing the
output signals at different phases of signal acquisition are
given below:

Signal Acquisition

Signal Acquisition-Final Signal

Signal Acquisition-Conditioning

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 72– No.14, June 2013

9. CONCLUSION [3] d‟Avella , A. Portone , L. Fernandez and F.

The presented work is based on the faithful extraction of Lacquaniti "Control of fast-reaching movements
EMG signals from human body. The EMG signal acquired is by muscle synergy combinations", J Neurosci.,
maintained under the range of 0 to 5volts and can be vol. 25, no. 30, pp. 7791–7810, 2006.
accessible by any ADC unit. The digital data obtained after [4] Hermens HJ, Freriks B, Merletti R, et al.
conversion is utilized to read by microcontroller unit. The data Recommendations for surface electromyography
received from the microcontroller port is further tested on SENIAM 8: Roessingh Research and
various class of motors like stepper motors, servo motors and Development. Enschede. 1999.
DC motors resulting in a mechanical model which is designed
to organize the robotic arms versatility with respect to number [5] Differential operational amplifier INA106, datasheet.
of position and rotation in various applications. The threshold [6] Operational amplifier TL072, datasheet.
selection is a careful task and depends upon the end
application. The thresholds given above are general one and [7] ADC LTC-1867, datasheet
may not suit to every application. But a model may be
[8] Thomas, U, Maciuszek, I.; Wahl, F.M. “A Unified
developed for any particular application like typing, lifting
Notation for serial, parallel, and hybrid Kinematic
parts or any repetitive tasks. The scope of the design can
Structures”, IEEE Proceedings of Robotics and
further be advanced in the area of arm prosthesis,
Automation. Vol. 3, pp. 2868- 2873, 2002.
rehabilitation engineering, diagnosis in the medical and sports
science. [9] Society of Robots tutorials.
[10] Parasuraman, S. “An EMG-driven Musculoskeletal
10. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS model for robot assisted stroke Rehabilitation
We thank Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, system using sliding mode control”. Mechatronics and its
Mohali and our guide Mr. Vikas Goel- Sr. Project Manager at Applications (ISMA), 7th pp.1-6,2010.
C-DAC, Mohali for the motivation and encouragement to
make this research work as successful one.
12. AUTHORS’ PROFILE
11. REFERENCES 1
Aditya Veer Singh Rana has received B.Tech. degree in
[1] Artemiadis, P.K, “EMG-Based Control of Robot Arm Electronics & Instrumentation from C.C.S University, Meerut
using Low-Dimensional Embeddings”, IEEE in 2010 and is pursuing M.Tech. thesis work in Embedded
Transactions on Robotics. Vol. 26, Issue: 2, pp. Systems Technology from C-DAC, Mohali. His expertise
393- 398, 2010. field of interest is embedded system design and control
technologies.
[2] F. E. Zajac, “Muscle and tendon: Properties,
models, scaling, and Application to biomechanics 2
Ridhi Aggarwal is pursuing M.Tech. thesis work in
and motor control,” in Proc. Crit. Rev. Biomed. Electronics Product Design & Technology from C-DAC,
Eng., vol. 17, Boca Raton, FL: CRC, 1989, pp. Mohali. Her expertise field of interest is Electronics product
359–411. design and control technologies.

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