Biomedical · Rehabilitation & Assistive Devices
EMG-Controlled Assistive Gripper
Build a device that reads muscle EMG signals to control a motorized gripper, a foundational myoelectric-prosthetics concept. Strong assistive-tech portfolio piece. NOTE: Educational project only. NOT a medical device and not for clinical use.
Major
Biomedical
Focus area
Rehabilitation & Assistive Devices
Total hours
45-65 hours
What you'll need
- EMG muscle sensor kit for Arduino
- MG996R metal gear servo motor 2 pack
- robot arm gripper claw servo mechanical
- Arduino Uno R3 ATmega328P microcontroller board
- ECG electrodes pads pack
- breadboard jumper wires male female assortment pack
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Steps
- Place the EMG electrodes on your forearm and view the raw muscle signal.
- Filter the signal and set a threshold that detects a muscle flex.
- Assemble the servo gripper claw and wire it to the Arduino.
- Program the gripper to close when you flex and open when you relax.
- Test gripping different objects and measure how fast and reliably it responds.
- Film a demo and document the system for your portfolio.
What to photograph for your portfolio
- EMG gripper build
- muscle signal plots
- grip actuation demo video
- signal processing
- control response
Resume bullet starters
Copy one, then swap in your own numbers.
Designed and built an EMG-controlled assistive gripper using EMG signal processing, myoelectric control, servo actuation
Applied embedded systems and biomechanics to implement, test, and validate the system end-to-end
Quantified performance with [insert your result, such as accuracy, error reduction, response time, or load capacity] after iterative tuning