Microcontroller based prosthetic device using myoelectric signal

The authors present a microcontroller-based system to simulate the multiple functions generally required of a prosthetic device. The system provides two degrees of freedom (elbow-joint movement and left-right rotation) for an above-elbow prosthetic device. The design is modular and flexible enough to increase the degrees of freedom. The EMG signals are sampled, amplified, filtered and digitized. A comparison of the average of the moving sampling window of the sampled EMG signal with the empirically determined threshold value provides the method of controlling the movement of the device. If the average of the current window is greater than the threshold value, then the muscle movement corresponding to the difference in the average and the threshold value is performed by the device.<>