ISSN : 2230-7109(Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543(Print)
2, Issue 2, June 2011
DC Motor Control using EMG Signal for Prosthesis
1
Mohan C, 2Vinod Kumar Giri
1
Dept. of Electronics and Instrumentation, SET, Sharda University, Greater Noida, India
2
Dept. of Electrical Engineering, M.M.M. Engineering Collage Gorakhpur, UP, India
Abstract
This paper describes a laboratory project involving controlling
a motor in forward and reverse direction using electromyogram
(EMG) signal without feedback. It could be used to implement
a real time EMG signal based prosthesis hand and to study
microcontroller applications. In this design, the low level signal
of EMG is amplified, filtered with band-pass filter and rectified
with precision rectifier before giving to microcontroller. The
EMG signal is analyzed in the form of count. Since the project
made with microcontroller and integrated technology, it gives
knowledge of component level and system level design.
Keywords
EMG signal, Microcontroller, EMG count, Prosthesis, Keil
µVision
I. Introduction
The microcontroller has been one of the most widely used
alternatives in industrial and consumer applications. This
subject included interfacing of motor, display device and
data acquisition devices. The EMG signal is the electrical
physiological signal of activation of a motor unit associated
with a contracting muscle and serves as a potential resource
for a man-machine interface [14]. For simplicity, the system
does not involve artificial intelligence techniques. The control
mechanism is based on EMG count.
The laboratory project consists of following parts: 1) EMG
electrodes and signal conditioner 2) microcontroller 3) LCD
and 4) a dc motor. This paper also details the system design.
II. Nature of EMG Signal
The bioelectric potentials associated with muscle activity
constitute the electromyogram, abbreviated EMG. In other way
we can say the contraction of the skeletal muscle results in the
generation of action potentials in the individual muscle fibres,
a record of which is known as electromyogram. In voluntary
contraction of the skeletal muscle, the muscle potentials range
from 50 µV to 5 mV and the duration from 2 to 15 ms. The values
vary with anatomic position of the muscle and the size and
location of the electrode. In a muscle, the intensity with which
the muscle acts does not increase the net height of the action
potential pulse but does increase the rate with which each
muscle fibre fires and the number of fibers that are activated at
any given time. The amplitude of the measured EMG waveform
is the instantaneous sum of all the action potentials generated
at any Some important details of EMG signals are given in
reference [3,4]. Since, most EMG measurements are made
to obtain an indication of the amount of activity of a given
muscle, or a group of muscles, rather than of an individual
muscle fibre. The EMG pattern is usually a summation of the
individual action potentials from the fibres constituting the
muscle or muscles being studied.
Because these action potentials occur in both positive and
negative polarities at a given of electrodes, they sometimes
add and some times cancel. Thus, the EMG waveforms appear
very much like a random noise wave form [4].
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IJECT Vol.
III. Materials and Methodology
The instrumentation amplifier (INA) INA 114 is used to extract
the EMG signal through EMG electrodes. The TL084 quad op-
amp is used to design the band pass filter, rectifier and envelop
detector. The OP 177 op-amp is used as comparator to get
transition pulses. Microcontroller 89S52 is used to analyze
the EMG signal. LCD displays are available typically as 16 x
2 or 20 x 2 along with the LCD controller. 16 x 2 means 16
characters per line and with 2 such lines. The latter one is
used in this work.
The methodology of control is a simple concept.
• Just extract the EMG signal with help of surface electrodes
and instrumentation amplifier. Filter the unwanted high
frequency signal and other noise signal using band-pass
filter.
• Rectify the filtered signal and demodulate the EMG signal
to get little purification using envelop detector.
• Convert the low level signal into high level signal using
comparator and it could be easy to count the transition
of EMG signal using microcontroller.
• Find EMG count for single action and double action of
muscle by counting the transition pulses of EMG signal.
• Run the motor in forward or reverse according to desired
EMG count.
The EMG count is defined as the number of positive or negative
transition pulses of EMG signal for an action of muscle.
IV. Extraction of EMG Signal
For the EMG detection, group of muscles involving reciprocal
movements were targeted. The flexor-pronator v. extensor-
supinator group was selected due to their isolation to movement
of the arm as a whole and the close relation to the hand muscles
[5].
The EMG can be measured by applying conductive elements or
electrodes to the skin surface, or invasively within the muscle.
Surface EMG is the more common method of measurement,
since it is non-invasive and can be conducted by personnel
other than medical doctors, with minimal risk to the subject
[6].
Measurement of surface EMG is dependent on a number of
factors and the amplitude of the surface EMG signal (sEMG)
varies from µV to the low mV range. The amplitude and time
and frequency domain properties of the surface EMG signal
are dependent on factors such as [6]:
• The timing and intensity of muscle contractions
• The distance of the electrode from the active muscle
area
• The properties of the overlaying tissue (e.g. thickness of
overlying skin and adipose tissue)
• The electrode and amplifier properties
• The quality of contact between the electrode and the
skin
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Two types of surface electrodes are commonly in use. The first

one is dry electrodes in direct contact with the skin and the
second one is jelled electrodes using an electrolytic jell as a
chemical interface between the metallic parts of the electrode
[6].

Jelled electrodes uses an electrolytic jell as a chemical interface

between the skin and the metallic part of the electrode. Oxidative
or reductive chemical reaction take place in the contact region
of the metal surface and the jell. Silver-silver-chloride (Ag-AgCl)
is the most common composite for the metallic part of gelled
electrodes. The AgCl layer allows current from the muscle to
pass more freely across the junction between the electrolyte
and the electrode. This introduces less electrical noise into the
measurement, as compared with equivalent metallic electrodes
(e.g.Ag). Due to this fact, Ag-AgCl electrodes are used in over
80% of surface application [7].

Jelled electrodes can either be disposable or reusable.

Disposable electrodes are the most common since they are
very light. Disposable electrodes come in a wide assortment of
shapes and sizes, and the materials comprising the patch and
the form of the conductive jell varies between manufacturers.
With proper application, disposable electrodes minimize the risk
of electrode displacement even during rapid movements.

Fig. 2: Block Diagram of Signal Conditioner

This is primarily because a major portion of power in the EMG

Fig.1: Position of EMG Electrodes
In this work, the SAEELCTRD105 reusable electrodes of
Recorders and Medicare System were used. They are pure silver
/silver chloride disc (dia 10mm). The position of electrodes is
shown in fig.1. The brown wire electrodes are EMG electrodes
and the black wire with black belt is a reference electrode. The
white colour tape is the micro pour tape to give the mechanical
support for EMG electrodes.
V. Design of Signal Conditioner Circuit
The basic idea behind signal conditioning of EMG signals
is given in reference [8]. The extracted EMG signal is
differentially amplified, bandpass filtered, and then digitized.
Some International journals such as the IEEE Transactions on
Biomedical Engineering or the journal of Electromyography and
Kinesiology are, however, strict, about the type of filtering and
require that these values be reported.
signal is known to be contained in the 5-500 Hz frequency
range of the power density spectra. Surface EMG recordings
are preferred to be in the 10-350Hz band. Intramuscular
recording should be made with the appropriate increase of
the high frequency cut-off to a minimum 450 Hz or by applying
a band-pass filter of 10-450 Hz. These are ideal filter settings,
which can be adjusted provided ample justification is given for
doing so. The filtered signal is then full or half wave rectified,
which simplifies the following analysis because it is confined
to positive-signal samples.
Fig.2 shows a block diagram of the signal conditioner system
for extraction of EMG signal. The input stage is the dual-input
instrumentation amplifier. So, two electrodes are connected to
the instrumentation amplifier. The next stage is a band-pass
filter and it consists of a high pass filter (HPF) and low pass filter
(LPF). Then the signal is rectified with help of precision rectifier
and the EMG signal demodulated with low pass filter or envelop
detector. Finally the signal is connected to comparator to make
compatibility with microcontroller. The cut-off frequency of HPF
and LPF is 60 Hz and 1000 Hz respectively and the envelop
detector cut-off frequency is 500 Hz. The reference [9] could
give the brief ideas about op-amp applications.
VI. Development of Overall System
The overall system concept is used from the reference [10-11].
The block diagram of system is shown in fig.3. It consists of
Signal conditioner with electrodes (S/C), Microcontroller Unit
(MCU), Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and a low revolutions per
minute Direct Current motor.

In first step of algorithm, the title of project is displayed for 5

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ISSN : 2230-7109(Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543(Print)
seconds. The title is stored in internal ROM of microcontroller.
After switch ‘ON’ the system, the program will display the title
in line of LCD module and start the 5s delay using timer of
microcontroller. Once the delay is finished, then the program
starts the interrupt service routine initialization.
Fig. 3: Block Diagram of Overall System
Fig. 4: The EMG Signal at Comparator output of S/C
The interrupt service routine has programmed with Interrupt
Enable Register (IE). It is a Special Function Register. Set the
Enable external interrupt, when ever the signal goes from
positive to zero level at external interrupt pin of microcontroller,
the interrupt service routine starts and the program counter
directs the flow to the respective vectors address.
At the interrupt vector address, the study of EMG count
subroutine is called as the interrupt service subroutine. In study
of EMG count subroutine, the first step is clear the bit of Enable
External interrupt and it avoids the start of service routine at
time of study of EMG counts. As mentioned above study of
EMG count, here a 5 second delay is introduced and monitor
the EMG counts for 5 seconds. After this five seconds process,
the microcontroller programmed such that it could display the
recorded EMG count and at the same it could monitor the
myoelectric signal. When we analyse the EMG count of a flexor
muscle for single action and double action of muscle, it comes
as shown Table 1 for different times.
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IJECT Vol. 2, Issue 2, June 2011
Fig. 5: The image of system
After this, the system programmed such that the motor will run
in one direction if the EMG count is less than (single action of
muscle) 20H or equal otherwise the motor will run in opposite
direction when the EMG count is greater than 20H and less than
(double action of muscle) 30H for 5 seconds and no feedback
is included for motor control.
The fig. 4 shows the EMG signal at the output of comparator and
just before the microcontroller. The EMG signal is monitored
with help of digital storage oscilloscope (DS5000 series of
Rigol). The microcontroller program is simulated with help of
Keil µVision tool and microcontroller programmed or burned
the microcontroller with help of Lab Tool-48 Intelligent Universal
Programmer. The DC motor is a China made metal fiber
motor.
VII. Test Results and Discussion
The simulation response of signal conditioner is done with
help of Orcad family release 9.2 software. The sine wave
function is selected and the frequency range is set to 300Hz
and the amplitude is 0.2V. After simulating the circuit, the
result waveform diagram is shown in fig.6. Blue color shows
the comparator output, red color is envelop detector output
and green is precision rectifier output. It is not possible to see
the source waveform because it level is very low as compared
to compared output. The fig.7 shows the frequency response
of the same signal conditioner.
Table 1: EMG Count for different action
Repetition EMG Count for EMG Count
Single Action for Double
Action
1 08H 19H
2 0DH 25H
3 15H 28H
4 21H 28H
5 05H 33H
The measured EMG count is tabulated and it is shown Table
1. If we see the EMG count for single action, it varies from
05H to 21H. It has more difference and it is due to force of
muscle action. When we do with less force for short time then
the EMG count is less. If the force of muscle action is high
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then the EMG count is high. The integration of overall system
is shown in fig.4 and the comparator output for single action
of muscle is shown in fig.5.
VIII. Conclusions
The electromyogram (EMG) signal is the electrical physiological
signal of activation of a motor unit associated with a contracting
muscle and serves as a potential resource for a man-machine
interface. If we see the span of the EMG count for single action
and double is less. It could help to design a control device for
a rehabilitation device like hand prosthesis in future would
be done.
29th Annual International Conference of the IEEE EMBS,
August 23-26,2007.
[11] Mohan C, Vinod Kumar Giri, “Hardware Simulator for
Hand Prosthesis using Microcontroller”, Proceedings of
the 2nd National Conference on “Electronics Design &
Communication Technology” of HCTM, Kaithal, India, May
14-15,2010.
[12] Muhammad Ali Mazidi, Janice Gillispie Mazidi, Rolin D.
Micinlay, “ 8051 microcontroller and Embedded Systems
using Assembly and C”, Pearson Education, Second
Edition, 2008.
10V

IX. Acknowledgments
The work was supported by Mr. P.K. Gupta, the chairman 0V

of Sharda Group of Institutions, Greater Noida, India for lab

infrastructure and other facilities.
- 10V

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0s 1ms 2ms 3ms 4ms 5ms 6ms 7ms 8ms 9ms 10ms
V( U5D: - ) V( R5: 2) V( U10: OUT)
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