Surface Electromyographic Control of a Humanoid Robot

This paper details the development of an open-source surface electromyographic interface for controlling 1-DOF for the DARwIn-OP humanoid robot. This work also details the analysis of the relationship between surface electromyographic activity of the Biceps Brachii muscle and the angle of the elbow joint for the pseudo-static unloaded arm case. The human arm was mechanically modeled for a two link system actuated by a single muscle. The SEMG activity was found to be directly proportional to joint angle using a combination of custom joint angle measuring hardware and a surface electromyographic measuring circuit. This relationship allowed for straightforward control of the robot elbow joint directly. The interface was designed around the Arduino Microcontroller; another open-source platform. Software for the Arduino and DARwIn-OP were drawn from open source resources, allowing the entire system to be comprised of open-source components. A final surface electromyographic measuring and signal conditioning circuit was constructed. Data recording and processing software was also coded for the Arduino, thus achieving control of the robotic platform via surface electromyography.