EMG-based control of a multi-joint robot for operating a glovebox

This chapter describes a control method for a multi-joint robotic manipulator using Electromyogram (EMG) signals for operating a glovebox. The system uses a Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) to estimate the user's intended motion from EMG patterns, and generates a control command for the glovebox and robotic manipulator corresponding to the estimated motions. The user can therefore control the manipulator as well as various functions of the glovebox system through his/her EMG signals while performing some manual operations through gloves. With this system, the authors produce intuitive control of the glovebox with the robotic manipulator. The authors confirm the effectiveness of the proposed system with an experiment using the developed prototype.