2010 International Conference on Advances in Recent Technologies in Communication and Computing

Bio-mimetic Behaviour of IPMC Artificial Muscle Using EMG Signal

R.K. Jain*, S. Datta*, S. Majumder*, S. Mukherjee**, D. Sadhu**, S. Samanta** and K. Banerjee**
*Scientists, **Students DMS/Micro Robotics Laboratory Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur-713209, (CSIR), West Bengal, India. Corresponding author e-mail: rkjain@cmeri.res.in

AbstractAssistive devices such as prosthetic and orthotic devices as well as micro robotic arm can perform similar operation of a human arm when these are actuated by muscle power. The generated force is transferred through an electro-mechanical system. Most of electro mechanical devices are heavy and are not compatible with muscular system. However, an ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) has tremendous potential as an artificial muscle and is driven by a low voltage range between -3 to +3 V. In this paper, bio-mimetic actuation of IPMC is studied. The electric voltage is detected by electromyographic (EMG) signal through human muscle and is transferred to IPMC. It is observed that an IPMC shows similar behaviour and controls of a human fore arm. Keywordsbio-mimetic, actuator and EMG. artificial muscle, IPMC,

I.

INTRODUCTION

The assistive devices such as prosthetic and orthotic devices need soft actuating systems which are controlled through human muscle power. The emergence of effective electroactive polymer (EAP), also known as artificial muscles can potentially address this need [1,2]. EAP responds to an electrical stimulation with a significant change of shape or size and this characteristic behavior can be implemented for designing actuation-driving mechanism and improve the quality of life. Especially, ionic polymer metal composite can be widely applied to the artificial muscle
This work is supported in part by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India (Grant No. NWP-30, 2007-2012) under eleventh five year plan on Modular Reconfigurable Micro Manufacturing Systems (MRMMS) for Multi Material Desktop Manufacturing Capabilities. S. Mukherjee, D. Sadhu, S. Samanta and K. Banerjee are students of Asansol Engineering College, Asansol, India who are carrying out the final year B. Tech Project at CMERI, Durgapur, India. Rests of the authors are with the Design of Mechanical System Group and Micro Robotics Laboratory, Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI), Durgapur-713209, West Bengal, India. (Corresponding author email: rkjain@cmeri.res.in; Tel No +91-3436452137)

because it is easily manufactured and is driven by relatively low input voltage (3V) [3]. IPMC bends towards the anode when subjected to a voltage across its thickness due to cation migration towards cathode in the polymer network. When the polarity is changed, it bends in the reverse direction. In this aspect, the actuating voltage for IPMC is given through our human muscle in place of battery source. For this purpose, an electromyographic (EMG) signal approach is carried out to transfer the signal from our muscle power. In past, Jou et al. (2006) has studied an articulatory feature classification of face muscles using surface electromyography [4]. Natarajan et al. (2002), Karakostas et al. (2003) and Kunju et al. (2009) have modeled the human arm interface for muscle activity, the quantification index of co-contraction at the knee during walking gait and walking pattern respectively [5-7]. Daley et al. (1990), Hudgins et al. (2000) and Light et al. (2002) have focused towards the microprocessor-based multifunctional myoelectric control system. Abdallah et al. (2009) and Ahsan et al. (2009) have concentrated on step signal of EMG [6-13]. Two-dimensional myoelectric control system of a robotic arm for an upper limb amputee and real-time upper limb motion from non invasive biosignals with physical human-machine interactions have been studied by Celani et al. (2007) and Kwon et al. (2009) respectively [14, 15]. Naik et al. (2010) has also studied the pattern classification of myo-electrical signal during different maximum voluntary contractions using BSS techniques for a blind person [16]. Murphy et al. (2009) has explored the micro electro-mechanical systems based sensor for mechanomyography [17]. Lee et al.s (2004) and Al-Faiz et al.s (2009) research work are related to the control of IPMC system for hand prosthesis and arm movement recognition based on EMG signal respectively [18,19]. In further continuation, we are exploring the bio-mimetic behavior of an IPMC using EMG for micro robotic arm. The objective of this paper is to examine the biomimetic behavior of IPMC through EMG signal. When a forearm moves in different angles, generated signal is
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978-0-7695-4201-0/10 $26.00 2010 IEEE DOI 10.1109/ARTCom.2010.49

transferred to IPMC which allows bending. This bending behavior is utilized in IPMC based micro robotic arm movements for micro manipulation system. II. FORE ARM BEHAVIOR

A. EMG signal behavior for fore arm During actuation of an IPMC, an EMG signal is the measured electric potential produced by voluntary contraction of muscle fiber. The frequency range of the EMG signal is within 4 to 900 Hz. The dominant energy is concentrated in the range of 100 Hz and amplitude of voltage range is 5.5 mV according to muscle contraction. Using these parameters, the circuit for filter signal is designed using MATLAB SIMULINK software as shown in Figure 1. In block diagram, the active EMG signal is taken from muscle and uniform noise is considered. The electric potential is first amplified with gain 32 dB and then band pass filter (BPF) is used with frequency range 4 to 900 Hz. Using band stop filter (BSF), noise signal that arises due to AC coupler power is eliminated. The signal is then passed through an amplifier with gain 60 dB. Subsequently, integrators are used to acquire better damping signal. The filtered signal is then passed to IPMC through ADC/DAC along with control system. The output signal after filtering is shown in Figure 2. It shows that the EMG signal is taken from muscle in the range of 5.5 mV. After filtering the noise, steady state signal is obtained.

B. Configuration of fore arm motion The different configurations ranging from 00 to 1800 are considered for measurement of displacement in actual environment as shown in Figure 3. The initial articulation of the arm is formed by having 00 between the upper arm and forearm. IPMC actuates in a similar manner according to the fore arm movement. The magnified displacement of IPMC strip with fore arm position is obtained as shown in Figure 4. It follows the exponential curve with maximum displacement 14 mm. This displacement would be utilized as an IPMC based micro robotic arm for lifting operation.

Fore arm position= 00 (a)

Fore arm position= 450 (b)

Fore arm position= 900 (c)

Fore arm position= 1350 (d)

Fore arm position= 1800 (e)

Figure 3 Schematic layout for different positions of fore arm

Figure 1 Block diagram of EMG signal behavior

8 6 4 x 10
-3

EMG behaviour Voltage Vs. Time

Voltage (V)

2 0 -2 -4 -6 -8 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000

Figure 4 IPMC displacement response with fore arm position

III.

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

Time (s)

Figure 2 Voltage corresponding to EMG signal behavior

The testing setup for bio-mimetic behavior of IPMC is shown in Figure 5. For actuation of IPMC through human muscles, EMG electrodes are positioned at forearm. EMG electrodes generate the voltage from the muscles which is then fed into the input port of an ADC

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ADC/DAC

PXI System

IPMC control circuit

DAQ assistant IPMC

Figure 5 Basic testing layout of IPMC actuation through muscles

(Analogto-Digital Converter). Electric field and current are imposed on the two faces of IPMC which is entered through the IPMC driver circuit. This data is amplified through PXI system along with DAQ Assistant Express VI in LabVIEW 8.5 software. The current and voltage analysis of the human flexor carpi ulnaris and extensor carpi ulnaris muscles is also done through oscilloscope. IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Figure 7 IPMC configuration before fore arm movement

During experimentation, the input parameter from muscle ranging from 5.5 mV is taken through referenced single-ended (RSE) signal along with continuous sampled pulses as shown in Figure 6. The pulse is amplified with the help of a PXI system. The amplification factor is 550. The desired output voltage range is generated through a DAC output port with the same frequency range. The output signal is connected to IPMC strip. Due to amplified output voltage from the DAC, an IPMC strip bends in one direction. By changing the polarity of the signal, the bending behavior can be reversed. The input and output configurations of the IPMC are shown in Figures 7 and 8.

Figure 8 Bending configuration after fore arm movement

The input flexor and extensor pulses are extracted from EMG signal which is fed to IPMC and various cases have been studied as shown in Table-I. It has been analyzed that output signal (fed to IPMC) is directly proportional to flexor and extensor muscles signal when it is working in either on or off mode.
TABLE-I THE POWER POLARITY ON BOTH SIDES OF IPMC Cases Flexor muscles Off Off On On Extensor muscles Off On Off On State Polarity Side A None Extensor Flexor None None Negative Positive None Side B None Positive Negative None

I II III IV

The voltage signal behavior is taken from EMG and fed to IPMC for actuation as shown in Figure 9. It is found that the trend of IPMC actuation voltage is similar to EMG voltage with amplification factor.

Figure 6 EMG placements on fore arm

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x 10

-3

EMG Voltage Vs Time

EMG Voltage (V)

4 2 0 -2 -4 -6 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1

feature can be applied in the field of rehabilitation technology and micro manipulation. In future, we will focus on developing well equipped micro robotic arm system. Human fore arm movement could be transferred into IPMC based micro robotic arm in a similar manner. It can be concluded that IPMC behavior shows replacement of an electro-mechanical system like electric motors in the application field of micro manipulation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors are grateful to the Director, Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI), Durgapur, West Bengal, India for granting the permission to publish this paper. The project is financially supported by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, India under eleventh five year plan on Modular Re-configurable Micro Manufacturing Systems (MRMMS) for Multi Material Desktop Manufacturing Capabilities (NWP-30) at CMERI. Authors are also thankful to Mr. Souvick Chowdhury (Project Assistant, CMERI) for assistance in this project. REFERENCES
Y. Bar-Cohen, Focus issue on bio-mimetics using electroactive polymers as artificial muscles, Bio-inspiration & bio-mimetics, vol. 2, 2007. [2] Y. Bar-Cohen, Electroactive polymer (EAP) actuators as artificial muscles - reality, potential and challenges, 2nd Edition, ISBN 0-8194-5297-1, SPIE Press, vol. PM136, March, 2004. [3] K. J. Kim and M. Shahinpoor, A novel method of manufacturing three dimensional ionic polymer metal composites (IPMCs), bio-mimetic sensors, actuators and artificial muscles, Polymer, 43, 2002, pp. 797-802. [4] S. C. Jou, L. M. Hein, T. Schultz and A. Waibel, Articulatory feature classification using surface electromyography, IEEE ICASSP, Germany, 2006, pp. 605-608. [5] S. Natarajan, M. Kazi and G. Muralidharan, Biosignal based human-machine interface for robotic arm, IEEE conference, 2002, Available: http://www.mechatroniks.net/index_files/5.pdf [6] T. Karakostas, N. Berme, M. Parnianpour, W.S. Pease and P.M. Quesada, Muscle activity and the quantification of cocontraction at the knee during walking gait, Summer Bioengineering Conference, Florida, June 25-29, 2003, pp.1-2. [7] N. Kunju, N. Kumar, D. Pankaj, A. Dhawan and A. Kumar, EMG signal analysis for identifying walking patterns of normal healthy individuals, Indian Journal of Biomechanics: Special Issue, NCBM, March 7-8, 2009. [8] T. L. Daley, R. N. Scott, P. A. Parker and D. F. Lovely, Operator performance in myoelectric control of a multifunction prosthesis stimulator, Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, vol. 27, 1990, pp. 920. [9] B. Hudgins, K. Englehart, P. Parker and R. N. Scott, A microprocessor-based multifunction myoelectric control system, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of New Brunswick Fredericton, NB Canada, 1997. Available: http://www.ee.unb.ca/kengleha/papers/ CMBES97 [10] C. M. Light, P. H. Chappell, B. Hudgins and K. Englehart, Intelligent multifunction myoelectric control of hand [1]

IPMC Actuation Voltage (V)

3 2 1 0 -1 -2 -3 0 0.01 0.02

Time (s) IPMC Actuation Voltage Vs Time

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

0.07

0.08

0.09

0.1

Time (s)

Figure 9 Different voltage responses with time

The EMG voltage VEMG (t) and IPMC actuation voltage VIPMC actuation (t) equations are respectively given below;

VEMG (t ) = V01Sin(2 f01t + 01 )

t =0

0.1

(1)

and

VIPMCactuation (t ) = V02 Sin(2 f 02t + 02 )

t =0

0.1

(2)

Where, V01 is mean value of EMG voltage (V); f01 is EMG frequency range (Hz) ; t is time (s) ; 01 is phase difference when signal is taken through EMG (radian); V02 is mean value of IPMC actuation voltage (V); f02 is IPMC actuation frequency range (Hz); 02 is phase difference when signal is given to IPMC (radian). For finding the frequency range of each signal, the experimental datas are taken and solved through MATLAB curve fitting tool. The numerical values are V01= 0.0047070.0000415, f01= 3.950.018, 01= 2.8840.175, V02= 2.6110.045, f02= 48.50.65 and 02= -0.040040.03. From these datas, it is found that EMG frequency range (f01) is similar to simulated data and IPMC actuation frequency range is 48.50.65 Hz which is nearly human muscle frequency range. After these observations, it is understood that IPMC behaves as an artificial muscle and the fore arm movement (in terms of voltage) can be transferred to IPMC through EMG. Thus, IPMC strip can be applicable as micro robotic arm in micro manipulation application. V. CONCLUSION

In this paper, IPMC control system with a bio-mimetic function through EMG is discussed. EMG signals are taken from forearm and actuation of IPMC is obtained when fore arm moves at different angles. To obtain larger displacement, the voltage signal is amplified at different forearm positions. An EMG signal is generated by an intended contraction of muscles in the forearm which provides the actuation to an IPMC. An IPMC acts as both capacitive and resistive element actuator that behaves like biological muscle. This

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[19]

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