Design and control of an IPMC artificial muscle finger for micro gripper using EMG signal

This paper presents the design and control of an ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) based artificial finger for micro gripper. In this work, IPMC based micro finger is actuated by controlled electromyography (EMG) signal. The EMG signal is taken from human index finger via EMG sensor. This signal is pre-amplified before transferring to IPMC for achieving the large bending behavior of IPMC. The bio-mimetic actuation behavior of IPMC is studied by movement of index finger muscles through long tendons. The stability analysis of EMG signal from human index finger is carried out by providing the PID control system. Experimentally, it is observed that IPMC finger can hold the load up to 100 mg when IPMC finger is activated through EMG via human muscles and an IPMC based micro gripper is demonstrated.