A Myoelectric Hand Prosthesis for Writing English

Alphabets
Ashish Sundar#1, Prema P.*2
#
M. Tech. Student, Biomedical Engineering Division, School of Biosciences and Technology,
VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
1
ashishsundar@gmail.com
*
Assistant Professor (Senior), Biomedical Engineering Division, School of Biosciences and Technology,
VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
2
pprema@vit.ac.in

Abstract — Writing is one of the tasks which can be easily
achieved by humans but not by robots. This paper describes the
development of a five fingered robotic prosthesis for writing
English alphabets by sensing the electromyogram (EMG) from
the identified available muscles of the amputated patient. The
EMG signals are sensed from the skin surface with surface EMG
electrodes and are conditioned using basic techniques involving
instrumentation amplifier and filters. It is then fed to trigger
microcontroller which in turn actuates the servo motors
connected to the finger segments of the prosthetic hand through
tendon driven mechanism. Unlike hands available nowadays
which are highly complex, the complexity of this hand is highly
reduced by implementing a spring loaded hinge technique at the
joints. The spring mechanism contributes much to reduce weight
and ease in controlling. Each finger is composed of a spring
loaded metacarpal bone, a proximal phalange and an integrated
distal-middle phalange, which are connected with a hinge joint.
The finger flexion motion is done by pulling a cable connected to
servo motor which serves as a tendon, whereas extension is done
by the elastic reloading of the spring. The paper covers both
mechanical and electronic design aspects.
Keywords— Myo-electric hand, Electromyogram (EMG), Tendon
driven mechanism, microcontroller
I. INTRODUCTION
The history of usage of prosthetics on human body has been
dated back from 300 BC, where wooden structures were used
to replace the missing limbs. Each year the number of hand
amputees is increasing either due to congenital defects or
traumas. Thus the needs for external hand prostheses are
unavoidable. Rehabilitation engineering is a special branch of
robotics that deals with the development of robotic devices as
a way to rehabilitate or enhance the capabilities of the
amputee. Although many companies and research
organizations are in front for carrying out research and
developments in the field of prostheses to make it fully
functional without losing the cosmetic effect, current
prostheses cannot perform like the biological counterparts [1].
Prosthesis can be either cosmetic replacement or functional or
both. There are many parameters which should be considered
while designing prosthesis such as functionality, cosmetics,
weight and cost. Most of the hands available now are highly
complex. This complexity is due to large number of DOF and
the actuators kept near to the joints, resulting in highly
complicated and heavy structures. As the controlling of the
prosthesis becomes precise and highly cosmetic in nature, the
cost will also be increased. This project proposes a simplified
controlling mechanism of a five fingered hand for writing
English alphabets by sensing the electromyogram (EMG) of
available identified arm muscles of the amputee, using
conventionally available materials which greatly contribute
for reducing the cost.
The motor units present in the contracting muscle, when
activated, produce an electrical physiological signal known as
electromyogram (EMG) and the usage of EMG signals for
man-machine interface has also been dated long back [2],[3].
Contraction of the muscle and thereby the production of EMG
controls the motion of the prostheses. The system does not
depend on the physiology of the EMG signals acquired; rather
the electronic section is responsible for the control of the
prostheses through a built in program for controlling the servo
motors. The servo motors are coupled to the finger segments
using the cables which make it a tendon driven mechanism.
The fingers of the prosthesis will then be moved in a
particular style so as to write the letters when the
corresponding muscles are moved. Four letters “L”, “I”, “V”,
and “E” are programmed to write when the controller is
triggered by the EMG signals. The proposed prosthesis
consists of three main parts: 1) EMG signal-processing
circuits; which consist of an instrumentation amplifier, a band
pass filter and an end stage amplifier for the conditioning of
the raw EMG signals, 2) the microcontroller and the
embedded program; which consist of electronic sections to
trigger microcontroller and 3) the prosthesis mechanism;
which is a spring loaded five fingered arrangement which, as
of now, has only two DOF’s at the proximal interphalangeal
(PIP) joint of the forefinger and middle interphalangeal joint
(MIP) of the thumb.
II. METHODS AND DESIGN METHODOLOGY
The proposed prosthesis is shown in Fig. 5. The block
diagram of the whole system is shown in Fig. 2. An
extracellular field is generated when the muscle fibers extend
along the length of the muscle. This is known as
Electromyogram or EMG. The generated EMG will be having
 G = 1 + (50KΩ / RG)

G is the gain
RG is the resistance across 1st and 8th pin of INA 118

The frequency response of INA 118P was found to be

satisfactory for using it in this circuitry.

3) Band pass filter: The band pass filter selected for this
application is Bessel’s fourth order filter. Since the energy of
EMG signals lies in the frequency range between 50 Hz and
500 Hz, a cut off frequency of 50 Hz for high pass filter and
500 Hz for low pass filter was given. This filter is selected
mainly because of its linear phase to frequency response and
smooth pass band. After setting up the filter, the filter
Fig. 1 Characteristics of Electromyogram
characteristics have been studied in order to understand how it
responds to the signal at different frequencies. Usually filter
a duration of about 3–15 ms [4]. The amplitude of EMG will be designed with unity gain, but Bessel’s filter is
signal ranges from 20–2000 µV which depends mainly on the designed to give a gain of 1.084 for first second-order section
motor unit size and the electrode placement. The EMG signals and a gain of 1.759 for the second-second order section, see
acquired are first sent to the instrumentation amplifier, then to TABLE I.
the band-pass filter, then to the final stage amplification and TABLE I
finally to the voltage detector circuits [1]. The resulting pulse FILTER PARAMETERS
signals are used as inputs to the microcontroller. According to
Butter Bessel Chebyshev (0.5 dB)
these signals, the program built in the microcontroller can worth
make precise decisions and then output PWM signals to K(gain) fn K(gain) fn K(gain)
control the servomotor to drive the prosthesis segments. Thus 2 1.586 1.272 1.268 1.231 1.842
the whole setup can be divided into three sections; A) EMG 4 1.152 1.432 1.084 0.597 1.582
acquisition system B) Microcontroller and servo mechanism 2.235 1.606 1.759 1.031 2.660
C) Prosthetic design and control. The circuit diagram for the 6 1.068 1.607 1.040 0.396 1.537
entire system is given in Fig. 3: 1.586 1.692 1.364 0.768 2.448
2.483 1.908 2.023 1.011 2.846
A. EMG acquisition system
The EMG acquisition system can again be divided into the Design of high pass filter:
following sections:
FC = fn / (2πRC)
1) Electrodes and leads: Electrodes can be generally
classified into two; active and passive. After thorough study Design of low pass filter:
passive electrodes were selected for this project since the
EMG signal physiology is not taken into consideration. The FC = 1 / (2π fn RC)
electrodes should be of minimal area so as to avoid cross talk
between the electrodes. Thus, normal disposable ECG FC is the cut-off frequency (in Hz),
electrodes from BPL were used. The leads used were normal, fn is the function for Bessel’s filter
commonly available coaxial cables. With two electrode-lead R and C are the resistors and capacitors
arrangement, the whole system can be considered as a bipolar
acquisition circuitry. 4) End stage amplifier and voltage detector: This section
is simply a non inverting op-amp configuration with µA 741C
2) Instrumentation amplifier: The Texas Instruments INA- with variable gain in order to increase the voltage fed to the
118P amplifier is selected as a first stage instrumentation voltage level detector. Variable gain is set by adjusting the
amplifier with a gain of 250. It is selected because INA-118P feedback resistor, which here is a preset (potentiometer).
amplifier exhibits a high common-mode rejection ratio Voltage detector circuit is a basic op-amp circuit which
(CMRR) of about 120dB and thus effective in noise reduction. detects when the input voltage goes above the threshold limit
It is selected also for its compactness. Another major and a pulse almost equal to the supply voltage is generated.
advantage of INA-118P is that the gain can be adjusted from 1 The threshold limit is set with the help of a simple voltage
to 10000 with the change in one resistor connected across 1st divider circuit.
and 8th pin.
V1 = (VCC x R2) / (R1 + R2)
 the microcontroller through a buffer to convert it into CMOS
V1 is the threshold voltage logic if TTL logic IC’s are used or use of CMOS logic IC’s
VCC is the supply voltage like LF351 can also be utilized. In that case there is no need of
R1 and R2 are the voltage divider resistors the buffer section.

When the supply voltage is maintained at 5V, the output pulse B. Microcontroller and servo mechanism
will be having a magnitude of approximately 5V. As The microcontroller section is actually the brain of the
AT89C51 is CMOS logic, either this pulse should be fed to whole setup. The controllers are programmed in time delay
subroutine as well as interrupt subroutine, so as to check the

Fig.2 Block diagram of the prosthesis system

Fig. 3 Circuit diagram of EMG acquisition system

ports continuously and to actuate the servos through PWM
signals and to reset the servos. Four ports are utilized for
writing four letters. In time delay subroutine, the controllers
check all the ports for a high pulse using polling method. The
controllers are programmed to send PWM signals to the
control input of the servos when a high pulse is sensed at the
input. These PWM signals are precisely programmed so that
each set will actuate the motors to write each letter. The
interrupt subroutine is initiated by a switch which is
incorporated to generate an interrupt in order to bring back the
servos to the normal resting state. Since writing the letters,
“L”, “I” and “E” requires only one axis at a time, one
microcontroller can be utilized for the same. But for writing
the letter “V”, which requires two axis of motion, both x-axis
and y-axis to be generated at a same time, the use of two
microcontrollers synchronized together is required. And thus
the system is incorporated with two microcontrollers. The
microcontroller used is Atmel’s AT89C51 which is an 8-bit
 Fig. 4 Flowchart of the program for motor control

CMOS microcontroller. The servos used are VIGOR-05A and through the bone segment and were held stable with the help
VIGOR-05B with 1Kg and 0.6Kg rotating torque respectively. of the screws used in fixing the hinge joint. Thus making a
The high torque motor was used to activate the thumb joint which is spring loaded. As the tension of the spring used
prosthesis while the low torque motor was used to activate the increases, the joints become more and more immovable. The
forefinger prosthesis. With a total rotating angle of 170 0, the tension of the spring was increased with the increase in
controls of servos are quiet easy with PWM signals. With diameter thickness of the wire used. Two types of spring
0.5ms duration pulses the motors can be actuated anti- elements were used in the prosthesis to make the joints
clockwise and with 1.5ms duration pulses the motors can be movable and immovable. Movable joints had a spring element
actuated in clockwise direction. Each pulse actuates the motor (spring element [1]) with a wire- diameter thickness of 0.6mm
for an angle of 220. Thus a series of pulses were transmitted and immovable joints had a spring element (spring element
for making continues motion of the finger elements. Supply [2]) with a wire- diameter thickness of 0.8mm. The hand has
for servos was given separately as it requires more current for three movable joints or DOF’s; one at Proximal Inter-
operation. Phalangeal (PIP) joint of forefinger, the Meta Carpo-
Phalangeal (MCP) joint of the thumb and at the MCP joint of
C. Prosthetic design and control forefinger.
This section can be further divided into; 1) Design of
prosthesis 2) Character segmentation and 3) Control
mechanism
1) Design of prosthesis: The photograph of the prosthesis
is shown in Fig. 5 which is a spring-loaded, tendon-driven,
five fingered hand with 10 joints and 15 bone segments. The
bone segments include 5 metacarpal bones, 5 proximal
phalanges, 4 integrated distal and middle phalanges and 1
distal phalanx for the thumb. Middle and distal phalanges of
four fingers were integrated since the Distal Inter-Phalangeal
(DIP) joints do not actively participate in writing for this
robotic prosthesis. The joints were made with commonly
available hinge and spring. The springs were allowed to pass
 Fig. 5 Photograph of the proposed prosthesis
Fig. 6 Design of the A. Thumb prosthesis and B. Forefinger prosthesis
The PIP joint of the forefinger when actuated, results in y-axis
motion whereas, the MCP joint of the thumb, when actuated
results in x-axis motion. The x-axis motion can be executed
only with an additional DOF at the MCP joint of forefinger
for abduction and adduction of the same. The physiology of
the joint when considered leads to active and passive motions.
Active motion or flexion is a result of activation of the finger
segment due to the motors while passive motion or extension
is a result of activation of the finger segments due to the
elastic reloading of the springs at the joints. Similarly, the
adduction of forefinger at the MCP joint is due to the
opposition of the thumb segment whereas the abduction is due
the elastic reloading of the spring element. The forefinger and
thumb are kept in close proximity so as to hold a pen. With
five fingered configuration, the functionality can be increased
and cosmetic appearance becomes much more natural than a
three fingered hand.
2) Character segmentation: A proper guideline about the
segments of the characters should be made in order to make
the robot draw each segment and finally the character. This is
the importance of character segmentation. Character
segmentation divides each character into segments which can
be easily analysed and manipulated with the robot. The four
characters shown in Fig. 7 can be now easily analysed. As
discussed earlier, characters are written with active and
passive motions. For characters “L” and “I”, all axes motions
are active. For character “E”, the reverse motion in x-axis is
passive while all other motions are active. For character “V”,
the active segments, first and second are generated by the
motion in y- axis and simultaneous motion in x and y- axis
respectively. The third segment is generated by the passive
motion in y- axis. Passive motion is due to the elastic
reloading of the spring which is very difficult to control to get
a linear motion.
Fig. 7 Character segmentation of the letters
3) Control mechanism: As mentioned earlier, the hand is a
spring loaded five fingered tendon driven structure with three
DOF’s. The finger segments; integrated distal and middle
phalanges of forefinger and proximal phalange of thumb; are
connected to servo motors using tendon mechanism. Two
servos with 1 Kg and 0.6 Kg rotating torque were utilized for
the actuation mechanism. The servo with higher torque was
used to actuate thumb segment while the other was used to
actuate forefinger segment. The motors were having a total
rotating angle of 1700. The PWM signals used for activating
the servos were generated using the microcontrollers. With a
0.5ms duration pulse trains the motors can be actuated in anti-
clockwise direction whereas with a 1.5ms duration pulse
trains the motors can be actuated in clockwise direction. When
1.5ms duration pulse trains are given to the motor connected
to forefinger, the segment is flexed. Due to the high torque of
servo motors, the position once attained is not released unless
another pulse is received by the servos. The forefinger
segment is then extended by giving 0.5 ms duration pulse The EMG signals were sensed from the subject’s biceps
train. using surface electrodes and were found to be sufficient. The
TABLE II signals were sensed by using commonly available disposable
CONTROL MECHANISM FOR CHARACTER WRITING ECG electrode. As the signal physiology was not taken into
consideration, the sensed EMG signals were adequate to
I II III IV V trigger microcontrollers which in turn actuated the servos
Four Two 0.5ms
1.5ms pulses to
connected to the prosthetic hand. Fig. 11 shows the trigger
L --- --- ---
pulses to M2 pulses obtained when EMG was fed to voltage level detector
M1 section. Signals with high energy content were observed when
Four the electrodes were kept at the belly of the muscle. INA 118
1.5ms ---
I --- --- --- has shown better response when the gain was kept at 250;
pulses to
M1 beyond which it has shown less tolerance to 50Hz noise. The
filter response was acceptable as it gave smooth response
Two 1.5ms curves.
Two and 0.5ms Four
1.5ms pulses to 0.5ms
V pulses to M1 & M2 pulses to --- ---
M1 respectivel M1
y (at a
time)
Two Two
0.5ms 0.5ms
pulses to Two pulses to Two Two
M2 1.5ms M2 1.5ms 0.5ms
E Two pulses to Two pulses to pulses
1.5ms M1 1.5ms M1 to M2
pulses to pulses to
M2 M2

The motor connected to thumb also can be actuated in the

same way. Actuation of forefinger segment leads to y-axis
motion. The thumb segment can be flexed when 0.5ms pulse
train is fed to the motor connected to it. Similarly, by giving
1.5ms pulse train the segment can be extended. Actuation of
thumb segment leads to x- axis motion. Each pulse when fed
to the motor actuates it to an angle of 22 0. So a pulse train was
used in order to make a uniform motion. TABLE II clearly Fig. 9 Bessel’s filter response
explains how the characters are being written. When the
interrupt switch is pressed, 0.5ms PWM signals are sent to the A final stage amplifier was also incorporated at the later
motor connected to forefinger and 1.5ms PWM signals are stages of this project as voltage level detector required an
sent to the motor connected to thumb to attain the reset amplified input. Since this circuitry actively does not
condition. eliminate 50Hz noise as the energy of EMG signals lie
between 50 – 150Hz, the system shown little vulnerable to
noise when electrical equipments near to the circuitry were
switched on.

Fig. 8 Servo mechanism A: 0.5ms pulse, -90 degree B: 1ms pulse, 0 degree
C: 1.5ms pulse, +90 degree

III. RESULTS AND OBSERVATIONS

 Fig. 10 EMG signal acquired
The microcontrollers were synchronised by giving same clock
frequency to each. The servo motors have shown vibratory
motion when the current at the input was less.
Fig. 11 Triggering pulses at the output of voltage detector
Thus the batteries were connected in parallel to boost the
current at the input. The supply voltages to all IC’s were
maintained at 5V whereas 6V were given to servo motors to
maintain the torque.
Fig. 12 Characters written by the hand I: “L”, II: “I”, III: “V” and IV: “E”
The two motors actuated an angle of 22 0 with a single pulse
which was actually an inability of the servos for precision
control. The hand structure yields to two motions; active and
passive. The characters written by the hand is shown in Fig.
12. The hand is programmed to write only four letters of
which three letters, “L”, “I” and “E” were of satisfactory
results whereas the fourth letter “V” was having problem with
the passive segment. The imperfection in the passive segment
of “V” is clearly seen in Fig. 12. Thus the controlling of
passive motion for linear motion at an angle is a little difficult
task for this hand. With five fingered configuration, the
functionality can be increased later.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
A five fingered spring loaded tendon driven hand prosthesis
for writing English alphabets by sensing the Electromyogram
of the amputated patient’s residual limb was developed. The
hand which was developed with low cost materials and
reliable methods has shown satisfactory results. As a starting
stage the current design can undergo further design
modifications and can be made into much more sophisticated
model in all aspects. Though there were various issues
regarding the character segmentations, with the addition of
more number of motors and tendons the functionality of the
whole system can be increased by increasing the number of
active motions. The EMG circuitry which shown less noise
immunity, can be made more immune with the use of proper
shielding wires and proper electrodes.
 Fig. 13 The whole setup

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