Design of a Multi-purpose Surface-EMG Readout System for Draft Control Applications

This paper presents current work on the design of a multi-purpose surface-electromyography (EMG) readout system that can be used in various draft controlled applications of low-accuracy (e.g. rehabilitation environments for stroke patients, ambient assisted living for elders, remote control of robotic arm). The proposed system interfaces six low-cost and low-power EMG channels exhibiting ±1.5mV sensitivity and 400mV output range. The ADC converters of a microcontroller (i.e. Arduino) platform are used to fetch the analog signal from the read-out system. Digital data is verified after ADC conversion using oscilloscope instruments. The microcontroller is programmed to filter the analog signal and identify its rough changes based on continuously adjustable thresholds. The measured data are transmitted in a flexible digital coded format via the microcontroller's network connectivity hardware to the associated control receiver, which in turn decodes it and performs the associated operation as required by the draft-controlled environment. The current consumption ranges from 330uA to 2.9mA per channel, depending on the type of operational amplifier used.