A bionic soft robotic glove mimicking finger actions based on

sEMG recognition
Shumi Zhao2, Ziwen Wang1, Yisong Lei1, Shaotong Huang1, Jie Zhang1, Jianxun Liu1,
Zidan Gong1*

1
Sino-German College of Intelligent Manufacturing, Shenzhen Technology University
2
Institute of Textiles and Clothing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
* Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +0755-23256330

Abstract
Compared with rigid robots, soft robotics is more suitable to develop
anthropomorphic digits that mimics the biological structures and dexterous motions of
human finger. This study proposed a surface electromyogram (sEMG) sensors-based
soft robotic glove system which was able to recognize the finger activities and
execute the same operation via the bionic glove. Finger activities can be recognized
by using electrodes sensors to monitor the electric potential variations on specific
surface of the forearm muscle regions. A hybrid robotic digit was designed that
utilizes pneumatic bellow actuators to satisfy the anatomical range of the finger
motion in order to mimic finger action according to sEMG information. The moving
trajectory of digit tip and the range motion of each joint of the robotic digit were
measured in experiments under the pressure from 0kPa to 70kPa. The bionic soft
robotic glove successfully demonstrated the finger action recognition and robotic
digits controlling for a variety of manipulation tasks. The feasible results provided a
novel technique for controlling the soft robotic glove through sEMG signals
holistically and practically, and also give inspiration and guidance for multiple fingers
remote operational applications.

Keyword: Bionic soft robotic glove; Hybrid robotic digit; Surface EMG sensing; Finger action
mimicking; Smart wearable device

1
Introduction
Soft robotic glove system has been widely explored from many aspects[1] [2] [3],
including the linear or nonlinear soft materials, controlling module, and applications
(e.g. gripper[4], and rehabilitation training[5]) [6]. Polygerinos et al.[7] used to
develop a soft robotic glove using molded elastomeric bladders with anisotropic fiber
reinforcements to overcome personal grasp problems. Trivoramai et al.[8]
incorporated a rotary and bending actuator in a polyester glove that was tested among
subjects for daily life assistance. Chua et al.[9] proposed a therapeutic glove device
with two internal inflatable actuators to provide lateral compression on the fingers
arthritis treatment. A variety of soft actuators have been adopted by these gloves
according to different application requirements. Soft actuators with chambers can
offer smooth and flexible bending motion, which makes them ideal to be used in soft
robotic gloves for hand rehabilitation [10] [11]. A bending bellow actuator is a typical
long beam-like element in which one side is longer than the other along the
longitudinal direction, resulting in actuator bending[12]. To achieve different flexion
motions, the bellows are partitioned into several compartments, thereby different
bending angles of each chamber could be achieved by inflating with different
pneumatic pressures [13]. Rotary flexible actuators can rotate its particular geometry
to provide movement, which is typically used in two robotic links[14].
Single-structure actuators for fingers are easy to manufacture, but the freedom of hand
motion is limited by the single direction of the movement [15] [16]. Therefore, it is
necessary to develop flexible soft actuator with high degrees of freedom to satisfy
versatile finger motions controlled by the robotic glove system.
The finger range of motion (ROM) is the commonly measured parameters in finger
motion relevant studies[17] [18] [19]. The bending angle of the robotic digit are
usually measured through experiments or analyzed via mathematical and finite
element models[20] [21] [22]. For actuators with complex structures and multiple
materials, the bending angle is given by experimental testing and data curve
fitting[23]. The mathematical model is difficult to construct because of the highly
nonlinear characteristics of the applied material and the complex coupling between
the human fingers and actuators[24] [25]. Additionally, finger exoskeleton need to be
studied due to the interactive relation between fingers and wearable robots[11] [26].
With the development of soft robotic technology, the traditional rigid mechanical and
single-structure designs have gradually transitioned to soft-actuated and bionic finger
musculoskeletal structure designs[27] [28] [29]. Wearable soft robotic gloves with
basic function of hand rehabilitation have been developed to improve the daily life
quality of people with hand trauma or neurological impairment [30] [31] [32].
However, the bionic design of an anthropomorphic digit and its simultaneous
mimicking ability for dexterous motions of human finger are still long-term
challenges for researchers.
Surface electromyogram (sEMG) is a typical medicine technique for collecting
muscular electrical signals of skeletal muscle activities via skin surface electrode
sensor, which has been applied in the wearable devices for medical and healthcare

2
applications[33] [34] [35]. Myoelectric pattern-recognition techniques have been
developed for finger motion intentions identification based on EMG information
which would be applied in controlling a prosthetic robot to mimic the recognized
intentions [36] [37]. For instance, Lu, et al. [38] developed a wearable gesture sensing
device worn on the forearm to manipulate a mobile phone using 19 predefined
gestures or even personalized ones, and Feng et al.[39] realized the online sEMG
control of the soft robotic hand to reproduce the gestures behavior of human.
Although numerous EMG-driven robots and exoskeletons have been designed and
used for neurorehabilitation [40] [41], the combinational work mechanism of finger
curvature recognition using sEMG sensors for controlling soft robotic glove to mimic
finger action should be explored further and optimized.
This study aims to design and develop an sEMG-sensor-based soft robotic glove
bionic system for finger curvature recognition and action mimicking. Surface EMG
sensors were stuck on the forearm muscles in five different locations in corresponding
to five fingers, and the intensity of sEMG signals for each active finger was measured
for recognizing the fingers activities (e.g. flexion, extension). The proposed soft
robotic glove system consists of five hybrid robotic digits, which were constructed by
pneumatic bellows with flexible chambers; rigid blocks to fix bellows; and a glove
base to provide support. The moving trajectory of the digit tip and the range motion of
each robotic joint were measured in experiments under various constant pressures. To
mimic finger actions, a pneumatic feedback controlling unit that integrated into the
sEMG monitoring module was developed for the precise control of the dynamic
pressure dosages. Performances of the developed soft robotic glove with sEMG
sensor monitoring system were examined on subjects through a series of finger active
tasks.

Methods and fabrication

The bionic soft robotic glove

The digit of bionic soft robotic glove was engineered with a certain number of
pneumatic bellows that configured in alternating order, rigid blocks located on both
sides of pneumatic bellows, and glove base connected two rigid blocks under the
flexible bellows chambers. When air pressure is inflated in the bellows chambers, the
upper part of the bellows is free to expand and the lower part is fixed by the glove
base that limits the expansion of the bottom part of the bellows, thus the bending
motion occurs as shown in Figs.1(a-b). The pneumatic bellows and rigid blocks were
installed individually outside the glove base according to the natural skeletal structure
of human fingers as shown in Fig.1 (c). A soft robotic glove which composed of five
hybrid robotic digits was fabricated and presented in Fig. 1(d). Fig. 1(e) shows the
detail structure of hybrid robotic digit using three sections of pneumatic bellows for
the index, middle and ring finger. Robotic digits correspond to the small finger and
the thumb consisted of two pneumatic bellows. Thereby, two types of hybrid robotic
3
digits were engineered in the glove that allow all fingers bend together on the same
plane.

Figure 1. Soft robotic glove: (a) Pneumatic bellow in initial stage; (b) Pneumatic bellow bending in
inflation stage; (c) Hybrid robotic digit design based on the natural skeletal structure of human finger;
(d) Soft robotic glove with five hybrid digits; (e) The detailed robotic digit structure with three
pneumatic bellows.

The finger sensing and robotic controlling system

Hand exercises require more than 20 muscles to work together [42], and each
finger involves specific muscle active region[33] [43]. The traditional sEMG sensors
with three disposable electrodes were adopted in this study to collect myoelectric
signals, and the corresponding data acquisition (DAQ) board was developed. Two
active electrodes were stuck on active muscle region and a reference electrode was
attached closely to the elbow where observed minimum muscle electric potential
during finger activities[42] [44]. Five different muscle regions on the forearm were
identified for sticking electrodes as illustrated in Fig.2(a) to monitor particular finger
activities. The selected regions (1) to (5) were considered have the maximum intensity
of sEMG signals for the activities of the thumb, index, middle, ring and small fingers,
respectively.
The hardware platform of the sEMG detection module mainly consist of three
parts: a STM32 chip (STMicroelectronic, Geneva, Switzerland) for controlling and
data analysis, five precision instrumentation amplifiers (AD8221, Analog Devices Co.,
Ltd.) for signal processing, and a BLE module for data communication with remote
device [45]. Since the dimension and depth of the muscles contracting underneath the
electrodes differ, the produced amplitude of the original sEMG signals may vary from
uV to mV[46] [47]. The differential input of the precision n instrumentation
amplifiers was used to amplify the sEMG signals for STM32 chip acquisition. The
full-wave precision rectifiers were applied to filter the noise with the amplified signals,
and operational amplifiers were applied to amplify them again [48] [49]. The
hardware processed sEMG signals were delivered to the STM32 chip for converting
digital value, and the obtained data were sent to a remote receiver via the BLE module
4
for further analysis and finger activity recognition.
Fig.2 (b and c) presents the whole soft robotic glove bionic system, which
consists of an sEMG monitoring module, a bionic soft robotic glove with hybrid digits
as an execution module, and a controlling module with pneumatic tubes connecting to
controller. The controller as shown in Fig. 2(c) was composed of a pneumatic pump
(model no. KPV04, max pressure 75 kPa), a data acquisition control board
(STM32F103 chip) with BLE module, differential pressure sensors (model no.
MPX5100DP, Freescale Semiconductor Co.), and valves (SMC V124A, Sintered
Metal Corporation, China agent). Fig.2 (d) shows the preset control scheme of robotic
digits. The sEMG signals of each finger were collected and analyzed to give
controlling commands. Simultaneously, the microcontroller of the bionic glove
regulates the pressurization level of the hybrid robotic digit to mimic finger action. In
the pressure controlling progress, to obtain the precise pressure for finger movements,
the pulse width modulation (PWM) wave[50] generated by the robotic glove
controller was applied to open and close the valves via the
proportional-integral-derivative method[51]. Additionally, differential pressure
sensors were adapted on each hybrid robotic digit to collect pressure feedback.

Figure 2. The robotic sensing and controlling system (a) Specified muscle regions on the forearm for sticking
sEMG sensor electrodes; (b) The sEMG monitoring module and the soft robotic actuator module; (c)The controller,
(d) The preset control scheme of robotic digits.

Results and discussion

Analysis on finger range of motion

The pneumatic bellows of hybrid robotic digit should follow the ROM of the
human finger to achieve finger flexion and extension comfortably and generate

5
adequate force to bend the finger properly. A simple interphalangeal configuration
was adopted for the motion analysis with the kinematic model presented in Fig. 3 (a).
References were set up based on the finger frames and assigned to this model to
depict the bending actions of joint points and the tip point C. The position variation of
the digit tip point C in bending direction can be described using its components as
follows:
, (1)

, (2)

where θ1, θ2, and θ3 are the first, second, and third finger joint bending angles,
respectively, which are related to the supplied pressure, and L1, L2, and L3 are the
lengths of DIP, PIP, and MCP, respectively. The index robotic digit with three
pneumatic bellows was taken as an example to show the working progress from the
initial stage to the bending stage as well as its moving trajectory (Fig.3b). Six markers
were attached to the hybrid robotic digit base and formed the levers of MCP, and PIP,
and DIP joints. The moving trajectory and the ROM of each joint were measured by
digit bending experiments, in which different points were tested under the pressure
from 0kPa to 70kPa, repeated for three times. Figs. 3(c-e) illustrates the flexion angles
of MCP, PIP, and DIP joint that reached 57°, 93°, and 75° respectively at the
approximate max air pressure of 70 kPa. The curves are approximately linear from
10kPa to 70kPa identifying a perfect control of bending action towards the hybrid
robotic digit. The slope of the PIP and DIP joint fitting curves (0.022, 0.018) are
larger than that of the MCP joint (0.013), which demonstrated good coherence with
the human finger structure. Fig. 3(f) shows the achieved the moving trajectory of the
digit tip (locations of the reference (0, 0), and tip (0, 115)).

Figure 3. ROM analysis of robotic digit with three bellows: (a) The kinematic model of a single digit; (b) Index
robotic digit working from the initial stage to bending stage; (c) Flexion angles of the MCP joint, (d) the PIP joint,
and (e) the DIP joint; (f) Moving trajectory of the digit tip.

Additionally, the relative error variations of the flexion angles were calculated to
explore the consistency of bellows under repeated pressure test. The relative error can
be determined as at a certain supplied pressure, where ∆θ indicates the

6
maximum deviation of the flexion angle and θ0 represents the average flexion angle.
The relative errors towards the MCP, PIP, and DIP joints are 7%, 9%, and 5%
respectively at the supplied pressures from 10 kPa to 70 kPa, which are less than 10%
presenting an acceptable result. However, when the pressure varies from 0 kPa to
10 kPa, the relative errors are larger than 10 % because of the need for start pressure
in the bellows which could be called the “pressure dead zone” that has been observed
in similar studies [52] [53].
Similarly, the working progress of a specific sized digit with two bellows from
the initial stage to the bending stage was explored by the same experiments and
presented in Fig. 4(a). Figs. 4(b-c) show the flexion angles of MCP and DIP joints
were 57° and 75° respectively at the approximate max air pressure of 70 kPa. The
moving trajectory of the digit tip (locations of the reference (0, 0) and tip (0, 70)
points) was illustrated in Fig.4 (d). When the supplied pressures varied from 10 kPa to
70 kPa, the flexion angle is observed to be larger than 90°, the curves are
approximately linear, and the relative errors for the DIP and MCP joints are less than
10%. The results indicated that the two-bellow hybrid robotic digit also provide good
motion accuracy that can be controlled precisely for finger action simulation.

Figure 4. ROM analysis of robotic digit with two bellows: (a) Robotic digit working from the initial stage to
bending stage; (b) Flexion angles of the DIP joint and (c) the MCP joint; (d) The moving trajectory of the digit tip.

Finger sEMG and robotic digit controlling

Although the hardware circuit smoothened the sEMG signal, the raw data
outputted by the data acquisition board are not suitable for analysis due to the
real-time noise and offset[54] [55]. Refer our previous study[56], a normalization
process for the root mean square (RMS) of sEMG signal was engineered to reduce
individual differences as follows:
7
 RMS
RMS N =
RMS M , (3)
where RMSN is normalized, and RMSM means the maximum root mean square of
sEMG. The maximum RMS value was determined before the experiment via repeated
tests under the maximum state. A group of finger motions were designed and tested
with the analysis of RMSN towards each finger as well as all fingers in a continuous
action (Figs. 5). The results demonstrated that for the flexion and extension actions of
each finger, the activity intensity of each muscle was significantly different.

Figure 5. The sEMG analysis information of fingers: (a-e) Designed hand motions; (f-j) the RMSN of sEMG
towards each finger; (k) the continues RMSN signal of all fingers in a bending action.

For real-time gesture monitoring and analysis, classical linear classifiers have
been widely applied due to the low computational complexity and good real-time
performance [57] [39]. Therefore, in this study, a linear discriminant analysis
classifier is adopted to recognize finger versatile action. The average recognition rate
(AVRR) of five fingers from extension to flexion in small, ring, middle, index, thumb
are 97%, 95%, 95%, 96% and 98% respectively. An electro-pneumatic unit was
assembled into a controlling box to provide isolated control for each digit of the glove
while differential air pressure sensors were used to monitor the pressure of each digit.
Fig. 6(a) illustrates the closed-loop working diagram of a robotic digit, which contains
the microcontroller that provides the control orders, the solenoid valves that switch
the inlet and outlet flows, and the differential pressure sensors that monitor the air
pressure inside the robotic digit actuator. When there is an obvious difference between
8
the desired and measured pressure signals (from 0 kPa to 50 kPa), the microcontroller
outputs the PWM wave to the solenoid valve and regulates the hybrid robotic digit
pressure (p) to track Pref as presented in Fig. 6(b). The solenoid valves are opened at a
high-level voltage and closed at a low-level voltage with a peak PWM frequency of
20 Hz because of the nominated response time of 50 ms. Therefore, a frequency of 20
Hz could be output by the control unit, which is higher than the mechanical frequency
(0.5 Hz) of the required actuator.
To evaluate the dexterity of the single and multiple robotic digits and the
performance of the controlling unit, a series of the robotic digit actions were set up as
shown in Figs. 6(c-j). For examples, to achieve the action of tripod pinch grasp (Fig.
6j), the valves of the thumb, index, and middle digit and the pump would be open for
inflation while other digits remained unpressurized.

Figure 6. Pneumatic pressure control strategy: (a)The closed-loop working diagram for the robotic digit; (b)
Robotic digit pressure response; (c) thumb flexion; (d) index finger flexion; (e) middle finger flexion; (f) ring
finger flexion; (g) small finger flexion; (h) all fingers extension or in original stage; (i) all fingers flexion and (j)
tripod pinch grasp.

Soft robotic glove mimicking finger action

The implemented control scheme of soft glove system for each hybrid robotic
digit was shown in Fig. 2(d). The working logic hierarchy of the developed system
allows the sEMG sensor to continuously monitor and controls the glove in advance by
comparing the collected signals, e.g. set the predefined conditions based on the initial
experiment to determine the threshold parameters of the user’s muscle intensity. Three
predefined conditions of a) ‘flex’, b) ‘extend’, and c) ‘hold’ would enable the glove to

9
achieve flexing, extending, or holding in advance and reduce the glove operation
delay time. Six combinational finger gestures were designed for the soft robotic glove
mimicking based on the sEMG signals (Fig.7). A pneumatic plastic glove filled with
1kPa air pressure was adopted inside a soft textile glove for supporting the shape and
providing a small resistance during mimicking actions. Table 1 shows the average
recognition rates (AVRR) are above 90% for six types of combinational finger
gestures.
Table 1. The AVRR of six types of combinational finger gesture
Robotic digit Finger action
OK Tripod pinch Two Orchid Six Fist
OK 95.5
Tripod pinch 90.5
Two 98.1
Orchid 96.9
Six 94.1
Fist 91.8

Figure 7. Six combinational finger gestures for mimicking: (a) Fist; (b) “Two”, (c) “Six”, (d) tripod pinch grasp,
(e) “OK”, (f) orchid finger.

The mimicking results of the bionic soft robotic glove successfully

demonstrated the finger action recognition and hybrid robotic digits mimicking
controlling. The hybrid architecture under pneumatic pressure control provides
specific mechanical characteristics and the glove base serves as the connection and
also facilitates force transfer [23] [14] [58]. Specifically, single finger motion
recognition rate (all above 95%), which based on the sEMG signals collected from the
aforementioned selected regions as presented in Fig. 2(a), seems to be higher than that
of combinational finger gestures that may due to the interference of multiple muscles
in simultaneous activities[59] [60]. This bionic robotic glove system worth further
investigation which could be applied in stroke hand rehabilitation training for
10
assisting in variety of manipulation tasks.

Conclusions

This study proposed a bionic soft robotic glove with the finger motion
recognition and robotic digit controlling functions based on sEMG signals to achieve
finger action mimicking. Given the complexity of the coupling interaction between
the finger and hybrid robotic digit, the natural skeletal structure of human finger was
considered within the glove design in order to achieve perfect compliance. The bionic
soft robotic glove composed of five hybrid robotic digits which was connected by a
certain number of pneumatic bellow actuators to satisfy the anatomical range of finger
motion for each joint. Therefore, controlling the air pressure of each digit can realize
the desired finger bending angles, and the combinational control of different hybrid
robotic digits is feasible to mimic human finger actions in daily life, such as grasp and
fist. Surface EMG sensors were attached to the specified muscle regions in the
forearm where have the maximum sEMG signals intensity for each finger. Thus,
depending on the sEMG characteristics of the selected muscles, hybrid robotic digit
mimicking action can be controlled following specific muscle intensity commands. A
series of hand activity tasks were design to evaluate the performance of the robotic
system with the results indicating that the developed system could satisfy the desired
motion characteristics. Many operation applications with multiple fingers could be
built based on this wearable sEMG monitoring and glove mimicking system avoiding
external finger model simulation calculation and measurement issues. In further study,
experiments would be performed among a wider range of participants to improve the
AVRR of finger activities and to investigate the robustness or other influences of the
robotic glove controlling algorithms.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, S.Z.; Funding acquisition, Z.G.;

Investigation, Z.W. and Y.L.; Methodology, S.Z.; Resources, S.H., J.Z. and J.L.;
Supervision, Z.G.; Writing—original draft, S.Z. and Z.G.; Writing—review & editing,
Z.G. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding: This research was funded by the Guangdong Youth Innovation Talent
Program (2019KQNCX180, Grant No. 202014555302033) and the Education and
Teaching Fund of SZTU (Grant No. 202018666601001).

Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank the Key Laboratory of Advanced
Optical Precision Manufacturing Technology of Guangdong Higher Education
Institutes and the Chi Chiu Chan’s Optical Fiber Sensor Group of Sino-German
College of Intelligent Manufacturing, Shenzhen Technology University for their
support.

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