Dmytro Dziuba
Published © MIT

Robotic Hand Control Using EMG

3-channel EMG allows to control individual fingers with very little delay.

ExpertFull instructions providedOver 1 day59,969
Robotic Hand Control Using EMG

Things used in this project

Hardware components

uECG device
×3
inMoov hand
×1
Arduino Nano R3
Arduino Nano R3
×1
Adafruit PCA9685 16-channel PWM driver
×1
nRF24 Module (Generic)
×1

Story

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Schematics

nrf24_hand_control_5jcEeCP8a3.fzz

Code

emg_hand_control2.ino

Arduino
#include <SPI.h>
#include <RF24.h>
#include <RF24_config.h>
#include <nRF24L01.h>

#include <Adafruit_PWMServoDriver.h>
#include <Wire.h>

#define SERVOMIN  150 // this is the 'minimum' pulse length count (out of 4096)
#define SERVOMAX  600 // this is the 'maximum' pulse length count (out of 4096)

Adafruit_PWMServoDriver pwm = Adafruit_PWMServoDriver();

int rf_cen = 9; //nRF24 chip enable pin
int rf_cs = 8; //nRF24 CS pin

RF24 rf(rf_cen, rf_cs);
//pipe address - hardcoded on uECG side
uint8_t pipe_rx[8] = {0x0E, 0xE6, 0x0D, 0xA7, 0, 0, 0, 0};

uint8_t  swapbits(uint8_t a){ //uECG pipe address uses swapped bits order
  // reverse the bit order in a single byte
    uint8_t v = 0;
    if(a & 0x80) v |= 0x01;
    if(a & 0x40) v |= 0x02;
    if(a & 0x20) v |= 0x04;
    if(a & 0x10) v |= 0x08;
    if(a & 0x08) v |= 0x10;
    if(a & 0x04) v |= 0x20;
    if(a & 0x02) v |= 0x40;
    if(a & 0x01) v |= 0x80;
    return v;
}

long last_servo_upd = 0; //time when we last updated servo values - don't want to do this too often
byte in_pack[32]; //array for incoming RF packet
unsigned long unit_ids[3] = {4294963881, 4294943100, 28358}; //array of known uECG IDs - need to fill with your own unit IDs
int unit_vals[3] = {0, 0, 0}; //array of uECG values with these IDs

float tgt_angles[5]; //target angles for 5 fingers
float cur_angles[5]; //current angles for 5 fingers

float angle_open = 30; //angle that corresponds to open finger
float angle_closed = 150; //angle that corresponds to closed finger

void setup() {
  //nRF24 requires relatively slow SPI, probably would work at 2MHz too
  SPI.begin();
  SPI.setBitOrder(MSBFIRST);
  SPI.beginTransaction(SPISettings(1000000, MSBFIRST, SPI_MODE0));

  for(int x = 0; x < 8; x++) //nRF24 and uECG have different bit order for pipe address
    pipe_rx[x] = swapbits(pipe_rx[x]);

  //configure radio parameters
  rf.begin();
  rf.setDataRate(RF24_1MBPS);
  rf.setAddressWidth(4);
  rf.setChannel(22);
  rf.setRetries(0, 0);
  rf.setAutoAck(0);
  rf.disableDynamicPayloads();
  rf.setPayloadSize(32);
  rf.openReadingPipe(0, pipe_rx);
  rf.setCRCLength(RF24_CRC_DISABLED);
  rf.disableCRC();
  rf.startListening(); //listen for uECG data
  //Note that uECG should be switched into raw data mode (via long button press)
  //in order to send compatible packets, by default it sends data in BLE mode
  //which cannot be received by nRF24

  Serial.begin(115200); //serial output - very useful for debugging

  pwm.begin(); //start PWM driver
  pwm.setPWMFreq(60);  // Analog servos run at ~60 Hz updates
  for(int i = 0; i < 5; i++) //set initial finger positions
  {
    tgt_angles[i] = angle_open;
    cur_angles[i] = angle_open;
  }
}

void setAngle(int n, float angle){ //sends out angle value for given channel
  pwm.setPWM(n, 0, SERVOMIN + angle * 0.005556 * (SERVOMAX - SERVOMIN));
}

float angle_speed = 15; //how fast fingers would move

float v0 = 0, v1 = 0, v2 = 0; //filtered muscle activity values per 3 channels

void loop() 
{
  if(rf.available())
  {
    rf.read(in_pack, 32); //processing packet
    byte u1 = in_pack[3];//32-bit unit ID, unique for every uECG device
    byte u2 = in_pack[4];
    byte u3 = in_pack[5];
    byte u4 = in_pack[6];
    unsigned long id = (u1<<24) | (u2<<16) | (u3<<8) | u4;
    //Serial.println(id); //uncomment this line to make list of your uECG IDs
    if(in_pack[7] != 32) id = 0; //wrong pack type: in EMG mode this byte must be 32
    int val = in_pack[10]; //muscle activity value
    if(val != in_pack[11]) id = 0; //value is duplicated in 2 bytes because RF noise can corrupt packet, and we don't have CRC with nRF24
    
    //find which ID corresponds to current ID and fill value
    for(int n = 0; n < 3; n++)
      if(id == unit_ids[n])
        unit_vals[n] = val;
  }  
  long ms = millis();
  if(ms - last_servo_upd > 20) //don't update servos too often
  {
    last_servo_upd = ms;
    for(int n = 0; n < 5; n++) //go through fingers, if target and current angles don't match - adjust them
    {
      if(cur_angles[n] < tgt_angles[n] - angle_speed/2) cur_angles[n] += angle_speed;
      if(cur_angles[n] > tgt_angles[n] + angle_speed/2) cur_angles[n] -= angle_speed;
    }
    for(int n = 0; n < 5; n++) //apply angles to fingers
      setAngle(n, cur_angles[n]);

    //exponential averaging: prevents single peaks from affecting finger state
    v0 = v0*0.7 + 0.3*(float)unit_vals[0];
    v1 = v1*0.7 + 0.3*(float)unit_vals[1];
    v2 = v2*0.7 + 0.3*(float)unit_vals[2];

    //calcualting scores from raw values
    float scor0 = 4.0*v0*v0/((v1*0.3 + 20)*(v2*1.3 + 15));
    float scor1 = 4.0*v1*v1/((v0*2.0 + 20)*(v2*2.0 + 20));
    float scor2 = 4.0*v2*v2/((v0*1.2 + 20)*(v1*0.5 + 15));

    //print scores for debugging
    Serial.print(scor0);
    Serial.print(' ');
    Serial.print(scor1);
    Serial.print(' ');
    Serial.println(scor2);


    //compare each score with threshold and change finger states correspondingly
    if(scor2 < 0.5) //weak signal - open finger
      tgt_angles[0] = angle_open;
    if(scor2 > 1.0) //strong signal - close finger
      tgt_angles[0] = angle_closed;

    if(scor1 < 0.5)
    {
      tgt_angles[1] = angle_open;
      tgt_angles[2] = angle_open;
    }
    if(scor1 > 1.0)
    {
      tgt_angles[1] = angle_closed;
      tgt_angles[2] = angle_closed;
    }  

    if(scor0 < 0.5)
    {
      tgt_angles[3] = angle_open;
      tgt_angles[4] = angle_open;
    }
    if(scor0 > 1.0)
    {
      tgt_angles[3] = angle_closed;
      tgt_angles[4] = angle_closed;
    }  
  }
}

Credits

Dmytro Dziuba

Dmytro Dziuba

7 projects • 84 followers
I'm an electronics engineer with background in AI and physics

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