Controlling an Upper-Limb Rehabilitation Robot by EMG Signals

VERSION OF RECORD ONLINE: 17/09/2025

Authors

Corressponding author's email:

thientd@hcmute.edu.vn

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54644/jte.2025.1783

Keywords:

Rehabilitation robot, Upper limb exoskeleton, EMGs, Kalman filter, Jacobian

Abstract

This paper presents a method for controlling the motion of a 6-DOF upper limb rehabilitation robot based on electromyography (EMG) signal. A kinematic model has been determined by Denavit - Hartenberg (D-H) method. Due to the complexity of the robot mechanical structure, the inverse kinematics is addressed using the Jacobian method. Besides, the EMG signal is a physiological signal generated during muscle contraction, which is collected from a low-cost sensor interacted on the human arm, but noise is inevitable in the extracted data. Therefore, the method treats EMG signal noise using Butterworth filter and proposes a method to predict elbow joint angle based on EMG using zero crossing and Kalman filter. Finally, the proposed method is evaluated through simulation on MATLAB Simulink and experiments on a 6-DOF robot arm model. The experimental results show that the EMG signal processing method proposed is significantly effective and the upper limb rehabilitation robot based on EMG signals is feasible.

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Author Biographies

Quoc Thanh Trinh, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Vietnam

Quoc Thanh Trinh received the B.S and M.S. degrees in the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Ho Chi Minh University of Technology, Vietnam, in 2017, 2019, respectively. He works as a lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education (HCMUTE), Vietnam. Currently studying as a PhD student at the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education, Vietnam. His research interests include robotics, rehabilitation robot, automation, nonlinear control and intelligent technique.

Email: thanhtq.ncs@hcmute.edu.vn. ORCID:  https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1379-6461

Minh Nhut Nguyen, Samsung HCMC CE Complex, Vietnam

Minh Nhut Nguyen is a graduate student at the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Ho Chi Minh University of Technology and Education, Vietnam, in 2024. He works as a Samsung HCMC CE Complex, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. His research interests include serial robot, parallel robot, nonlinear control, and intelligent control.

Email: nhut.nguyenminh318@gmail.com. ORCID:  https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7947-9735

Thanh Nha Nguyen, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Vietnam

Thanh Nha Nguyen received the Bachelor’s of engineer majoring in automation and control engineering from the Faculty electrical and electronics engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Vietnam, in 2023. He works as a Robotics and Intelligent Control Lab member in the Department of Automatic Control, Ho Chi Minh University of Technology and Education, Vietnam. His research interests include robotics, parallel robot, rehabilitation robots, nonlinear control, and intelligent control.

Email: ntnha0639@gmail.com or 2341104@student.hcmute.edu.vn. ORCID:  https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1302-5378

Quoc Thanh Truong, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, VNU-HCM, Vietnam

Quoc Thanh Truong received the BSc. degree in the department of Mechanical Engineering from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology in 1998, and the MSc. degree from the master program of mechanics under Inter-University Cooperation Program between Liege University (Belgium) and HCMUT (Vietnam) in 2000. After that, he finished the PhD. degree at the University of Ulsan (Korea) in 2009. From 2000 to 2004 and from 2009 to now, he worked as a lecturer in the mechanical department of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT). His research interests focus on designing, modelling, simulating and manufacturing of new actuators. Otherwise, he is also focusing on vibration control theory and application theories.

Email: thanhtq@hcmut.edu.vn. ORCID:  https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7530-1740

My Ha Le, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Vietnam

My Ha Le received the B.S and M.S. degrees in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Vietnam, in 2005, 2009, and the Ph.D. degree from University of Ulsan in 2020, respectively. He works as a deputy head of faculty of electrical and electronics engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education (HCMUTE), Vietnam. His research interests include artificial intelligence, computer vision and robotic.

Email: halm@hcmute.edu.vn. ORCID:  https://orcid.org/0009-0009-7943-0444

Duc Thien Tran, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Vietnam

Duc Thien Tran received the B.S and M.S. degrees in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Vietnam, in 2010, 2013, and the Ph.D. degree from University of Ulsan in 2020, respectively. He works as a lecturer with the Department of Automatic Control, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education (HCMUTE), Vietnam. His research interests include robotics, variable stiffness system, fluid power control, disturbance observer, nonlinear control, adaptive control, and intelligent technique.

Email: thientd@hcmute.edu.vn. ORCID:  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-0681

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Published

17-09-2025

How to Cite

Quoc Thanh Trinh, Minh Nhut Nguyen, Thanh Nha Nguyen, Quoc Thanh Truong, My Ha Le, & Duc Thien Tran. (2025). Controlling an Upper-Limb Rehabilitation Robot by EMG Signals: VERSION OF RECORD ONLINE: 17/09/2025. Journal of Technical Education Science. https://doi.org/10.54644/jte.2025.1783

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