Robotic Prosthetic Arm

Bilin Balachandran
ECE Department,
CORE BIT Campus
Ras Al Khaimah, U.A.E

Ajailal .J

Omkar Kulkarni

ECE Department,
CORE BIT Campus
Ras Al Khaimah, U.A.E

AbstractNowadays, the rate of people who have

amputed arms are increasing day by day. A robotic
prosthetic arm is a better option for them to perform
the functions of the amputed arm. Prosthetic arm can
be viewed as a substitute of the humanoid arm. This
arm can perform almost all the functions of human
arm. Also it can be converted to a spider arm to pick
up even small objects. The arm can be used in
hazardous situations and worse environmental
conditions where the human arm cannot withstand. It
is preferred for industrial applications like mining,
welding, in automobile industry for car manufacturing
etc. Moreover by introducing the nerve recognition
gives application to use as human interface for the
disables. It uses computer as mode of control through
microcontroller as the interface and also involves
finger mimicking technique.
Keywords- Prosthetic arm, Degrees of Freedom (DOF),
Servomotor, finger, shoulder
I.

INTRODUCTION

Robotic prosthetic arm is a mechanical arm programmed with

similar functions to a human arm. This arm basically
replicates the functions of a human arm. The functions of the
arm include numerical representation using fingers, gestures
etc. It also includes converting normal prosthetic arm to spider
arm. Prosthetic arm basically follows a construction of vertical
articulated type that delivers a maximum payload of 3 kgs. It
provides a maximum reachability of 3010 m. The major
factors limiting prostheses to tools are practical ones due to
the severe weight, power and size constraints of hand/arm
systems as well as the difficulty in finding a sufficient number
of appropriate control sources to control the requisite number
of degrees of freedom. The various criteria which are used to
understand the concept of prosthetic arm are the following:
Degree of freedom (DOF):
Defined as a joint on the arm, a place where it can bend
or rotate or translate. It is identified by number of actuators on
robotic arm.

ECE Department,
CORE BIT Campus
Ras Al Khaimah, U.A.E

Muhammed Labeedh
ECE Department,
CORE BIT Campus
Ras Al Khaimah, U.A.E

Robot Workspace:
All the places that the end effector (gripper) can reach is
known as robot workspace.. It is also known as reachable
space.
Mobile manipulators:
A moving robot with a robot arm is a sub-class of robotic
arms. They work just like other robotic arms, but the DOF of
the vehicle is added to the DOF of the arm.
Forward Kinematics:
This method is for determining the orientation and
position of the end effector, given the joint angles and link
lengths of the robot arm.
Inverse Kinematics:
It is opposite of forward kinematics. This is when you
have a desired end effector position, but need to know the
joint angles required to achieve it.
Motion planning:
It is defined as plan of movement for the robotic arm to
achieve specific task. It is fairly complex.
Sensing:
Most robot arms only have internal sensors, such
as encoders. For good reasons we use additional sensors like
video, haptic etc.
Here the command signal is given to the robotic arm
controller to set its position. The robotic arm controller is a
computer interfaced through microcontroller. This controller
intiates the motors used by providing the motor command.
Sensors are incorporated to determine position of objects such
that the arm is able to detect even smaller objects.

Figure 1: Robotic arm Block Diagram

II.

ARM MOVEMENTS

The arm basically possess two types of motion: translatory

and rotational motions. Besides the combination of translation
and rotations are also possible. The magnitude of translatory
motion is given in terms of displacement, velocity and
acceleration. Analogous to these parameters is the angular
displacement, angular velocity and angular acceleration in
rotational motion. The location of motion of robotic arm takes
place along following planes:
Transverse or Horizontal Plane
Superior and Inferior
Coronal or Frontal Plane
Anterior and Posterior
Sagittal plane
Medial and Lateral
TABLE I. PLANES AND AXIS OF ROTATION

Axis of
rotation

Direction of
motion

Perpendicular
to

Sagittal axis
(anterior
posterior axis)

Horizontally
from front to
back

Coronal plane

Coronal axis
(frontal axis)

Horizontally
from side to
side

Sagittal plane

Vertical axis

Perpendicular
to ground

Transverse
plane

There are basically three translatory motions along x,y and

z axes and three rotational axis along r, and axis. The arm
basically has 6 DOFs which includes the following:
Moving up and down
Moving left and right
Moving forward and backward
Tilting forward and backward (pitch)
Turning left and right (yaw)
Tilting side to side (roll)

Flexion: Denotes decreasing joint angle such as

bending
Extension: Denotes increased joint angle such as
stretching.
Abduction: Movement that draws limb away from
sagittal plane.
Adduction: Movement which brings limb closer to
the sagittal plane.
Supination: Movement in which palm faces up.
Pronation: Movement in which palm faces down.
Circumduction: It is combination of flexion,
extension, abduction and adduction.

These arm movements are accomplished by using motors in

robotic arm. For the motion of the elbow, wrist and shoulders
three stepper motors are used respectively. The stepper motor
preferred is M35SP-9N. It is brushless DC motor that divides
full rotation into steps and comes in different sizes, speeds and
phase current waveforms. As the motor speed increases, the
torque will decrease. The most torque is exhibited in stationary
state. When a step is made on the motor, the rotor will snap
from one position to next. It produces a step angle of 7.5
degrees/step. Moreover it is a constant power device and found
to be noisier than DC motors.
For the motion of five fingers servomotors are used. The
preferred model is SG 5010. It is a high standard torque servo
which can rotate approximately 180 degrees. It consists of a
hard wiring nylon gear train and strong case. The pulse cycle
lasts for 20 ms and provides high precision and repeatability.
The operating voltage ranges from 4.8- 6.0V DC with a torque
of 6.5 kg cm. Mechanical stops prevent the servo from desired
position which is known as overdrive of servo. Motor drives
are required for driving these servos. By providing pulses of
different widths the servo can be driven to desired positions.
This can be depicted as follows:

Figure 3: Different pulse widths and servo positions

Figure 2: Axes and direction of motion
The above figure represents translatory motions along x,y
and z axes.
The various movements of the arm are denoted by different
terminologies. They are as follows:

III.

ARM CONSTRUCTION

Arm Construction is done completely using acrylic sheets.

Acrylic sheets are chosen as they are strong, weightless and
can be cut exactly according to our convenience and needs.

Cell cast acrylic sheets are used which possess overall

weather resistance, low UV sensitivity, resistant to inorganic
acids and extremely grid.
For flexion of fingers we use nylon strings which are made
of a monofilament nylon. Monofilament fibers are cheaper and
produced in a range of diameters having different tensile
strength. Here a monofilament fiber of diameter 0.47mm
providing break strength of 30lbs/14kg is used. The steps of
construction are given as follows:
Cut the acrylic sheets accordingly as per the
dimensions of a humanoid arm.
Ensure that the length of each finger made be the
same.
Connect the joints using plastic and steel nuts or bolts
accordingly.
Connect the fingers to the servomotors through nylon
strings in order to perform flexion of each finger
individually.
Perform a setup on each finger such that it splits apart
while the palm is in spider arm mode.
Also perform the same setup to get back the fingers to
normal palm position once the spider arm mode is
deactivated.
Use dental rubber bands to extend each flexed finger
so that it reaches at an actual erect position when the
servomotor is deactivated.
Construct the wrist elbow and shoulder also using
acrylic sheets with necessary joints required.
Connect the stepper motors to wrist elbow as well as
shoulders for creating stepped movements.
The materials used to construct the robotic arm are light
weight and cost effective providing an efficiency of about 60%.
IV.

PC INTERFACE

The interface between the robotic arm and personal

computer is 8051 Microcontroller. The preferred one is
89C51RD2 series. It is a reliable series which can almost all
the functions if the prosthetic arm. The special features of this
series are:
It is a single chip 8-bit microcontroller.
Supports real time programming.
Variable temperature range & maximum capacity.
Programmed by user end application (IAP).
Consists of programmable clock out pin.
Four 8-bit input output ports.
Supports 6 clock/ 12 clock mode via parallel
programmer.
Possess seven Interrupt sources.
Speeds up to 20 MHz for 6 clock cycles per machine
cycle.
Supports ISP featured programming.
Fully static operation.
RAM expandable externally to 64 kilobytes.
Four interrupt priority levels.
In addition, an SFR bit (X2) in the clock control
register (CKCON) also selects between 6-clock/12-clock

modes. Additionally, when in 6-clock mode, peripherals

may use either 6 clocks per machine cycle or 12 clocks per
machine cycle. This choice is available individually for
each peripheral and is selected by bits in the CKCON
register. The added features of the P89C51RD2 powerful
microcontroller makes it suitable for pulse width
modulation, high-speed I/O and up/down counting
capabilities such as motor control.

Figure 4: Microcontroller 89C51RD2 Block Diagram

This series consists of configurable input/output ports,
programmable counter arrays (PCA), timers, oscillators along
with a crystal resonator. An on-board watchdog timer is
available with the PCA to improve the reliability of the system
without increasing chip count. Watchdog timers are useful for
systems that are susceptible to noise, power glitches, or
electrostatic discharge.
The most important features of this series are In-System
Programming (ISP) and In-Application Programming (IAP).
The In-System Programming (ISP) is performed without
removing the microcontroller from the system. This facility
consists of a series of internal hardware resources coupled with
internal firmware to facilitate remote programming of the
89C51RD2 through the serial port. The Philips In-System
Programming (ISP) facility has made in-circuit programming
in an embedded application possible with a minimum of
additional expense in components and circuit board area. The
ISP feature allows for a wide range of baud rates to be used in
your application, independent of the oscillator frequency. It is
also adaptable to a wide range of oscillator frequencies. This is
accomplished by measuring the bit-time of a single bit in a
received character. This information is then used to program
the baud rate in terms of timer counts based on the oscillator
frequency. Once baud rate initialization has been performed,
the ISP firmware will only accept Intel Hex-type records. Intel
Hex records consist of ASCII characters used to represent
hexadecimal values. The ISP function uses TxD, RxD, VSS,
VCC, and VPP pins of the 89C51RD2 series.

The In-Application Programming (IAP) feature enables

microcontroller to fetch new program code and reprograms
itself while in system. This facility allows remote programming
over a modem link. For IAP, user program erases and
reprograms the flash memory by using standard routines
contained in ROM. IAP permits selective erasing and
reprogramming of flash sectors using IAP calls. These IAP
calls made through a common interface. Here the Programming
functions selected by setting up microcontrollers registers
before making a call to interface. Also the oscillator frequency
which is usually an integer rounded down to nearest MHz.
Besides these features, 89C51RD2 series can operate under
three power modes. They are:
Stop-Clock Mode
Ideal Mode
Power-Down Mode
The Stop-Clock Mode enables the clock speed to be
reduced down to 0 MHz (stopped). When the oscillator is
stopped, the RAM and Special Function Registers retain
their values. This mode allows step-by-step utilization and
permits reduced system power consumption by lowering
the clock frequency down to any value.
In the Idle Mode the CPU puts itself to sleep while all
of the on-chip peripherals stay active. The instruction to
invoke the idle mode is the last instruction executed in the
normal operating mode before the idle mode is activated.
The CPU contents, the on-chip RAM, and all of the special
function registers remain intact during this mode. The idle
mode can be terminated either by any enabled interrupt or
by a hardware reset which starts the processor in the same
manner as a power-on reset.
To save even more power, a Power- Down Mode can
be invoked by software. In this mode, the oscillator is
stopped and the instruction that invoked Power Down is
the last instruction executed. The on-chip RAM and
Special Function Registers retain their values down to 2 V
and care must be taken to return VCC to the minimum
specified operating voltages before the Power- Down
Mode is terminated. To properly terminate Power Down,
the reset or external interrupt should not be executed
before VCC is restored to its normal operating level and
must be held active long enough for the oscillator to restart
and stabilize. With an external interrupt, INT0 and INT1
must be enabled and configured as level-sensitive. Holding
the pin low restarts the oscillator but bringing the pin back
high completes the exit.
The softwares used for programming the prosthetic
arm are:
Microsoft Visual Studio ( giving commands)
Micro vision Keil (Programming 89C51RD2)
Microsoft Visual Studio supports programming
languages through language services. Here the
programming language service chosen is Visual C++.
Visual C++ is an IDE (Integrated development
environment) developed by Microsoft for C++ programmers.

It consists of many graphic commands than other C++

applications. Visual C++ can compile either in C mode or
C++ mode. Moreover it is used to develop console and
graphical user interface applications along with various
web services.
Micro vision Keil is the burning software to the
microcontroller. This software is an integrated
development environment (IDE), which integrated a text
editor to write programs, a compiler and it will convert
your source code to hex files too. Major steps while
dealing with Keil software are as follows:
Writing programs in C/C++ or Assembly language.
Compiling and Assembling Programs.
Debugging program.
Creating Hex and Axf file.
Testing your program using Simulator mode.

V.

CONCLUSION

As the rates of amputees are increasing per year,

progressive development in the field of prostheses is very
much essential. The Robotic Prosthetic Arm is highly useful to
mankind as it can withstand even hostile environmental
conditions. The reason behind this is the material preferred for
construction i.e. acrylic sheet. A number of commercial
prosthetic arm have been developed since last few decades.
However, many amputees have not used them due to the
discrepancy between their expectations and the reality. One of
the main factors that cause the loss of interest in current
commercial prosthetic arm is the lack of desired DOF that
results in unnatural arm motion. Advancements in the
processors used in myoelectric arms have allowed making
gains in fine-tuned control of the prosthetic. In addition to the
standard artificial limb for everyday use, many amputees or
congenital patients have special limbs and devices to aid in the
participation of sports and recreational activities. Within
science fiction, and, more recently, within the scientific
community, there has been consideration given to using
advanced prostheses to replace healthy body parts with
artificial mechanisms and systems to improve function. The
morality and desirability of such technologies are being
debated.
A person's prosthesis should be designed and assembled
according to the patient's appearance and functional needs. The
amount of cost for a prosthetic arm cannot be determined
without knowing what kind. With more prosthetics available
each year, prices can vary based on the type and size. Most
prostheses can be attached to the exterior of the body, in a nonpermanent way. Some others however can be attached in a
permanent way. Prosthetic arms are incredibly valuable to
amputees because prosthesis can help restore some of the
capabilities lost with the amputated arm. Although prosthetic
arms have still not advanced to the point where they can rival
the functionality provided by biological arms, the capabilities
they do provide can be significant. Great strides are being
made each day in the field of prosthetics, and while great

technological challenges remain, robotic prosthetic arms are

becoming increasingly similar to humanoid arms
ACKNOWLEGMENT
The authors would like to convey their sincere thanks to
project guide Professor Annie Therese and project guide
Professor Deepthy Manikantan for their encouragement,
guidance and unconditional support. The authors also would
like to express their gratitude to their Assistant Professor
Sreejith Maniyankal for providing valuable advices and
suggestions regarding the technical aspects of the project.
REFERNCES
[1] M. King, B. Zhu, and S. Tang, Optimal path planning,
Mobile Robots, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 520-531, March 2001.
[2] H. Simpson, Dumb Robots, 3rd ed., Springfield: UOS
Press, 2004, pp.6-9.
[3] M. King and B. Zhu, Gaming strategies, in Path
Planning to the West, vol. II, S. Tang and M. King, Eds.
Xian: Jiaoda Press, 1998, pp. 158-176.
[4] B. Simpson, et al, MESA ppt presentation
[5] J.-G. Lu, Title of paper with only the first word
capitalized, J. Name Stand. Abbrev., in press.
[6] Y. Yorozu, M. Hirano, K. Oka, and Y. Tagawa, Electron
spectroscopy studies on magneto-optical media and plastic
substrate interface, IEEE Translated J. Magn. Japan, vol.
2, pp. 740-741, August 1987 [Digest 9th Annual Conf.
Magnetics Japan, p. 301, 1982].
[7] M. Young, Artificial Instrumentation, Mill Valley, CA:
University Science, 1989. M. Young, Artificial
Instrumentation, Mill Valley, CA: University Science,
1989.
[8] I. J Nagrath, Robotics and Control, Tata Mcgraw Hill.
[9] P89C51RA2xx/RB2xx/RC2xx/RD2xx Data Sheet, Philips
Semiconductors.
[10] Prostheses, Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.
[11] Research paper Neuro-Robotics, Liang Hu and H Taylor
(Digest 12th Annual Conf. Magnetics Japan, p. 301, 1999).
[12] Implementation Of A Robotic Arm Based On Haptic
Technology, International Journal of Engineering
Research and Applications (IJERA) Vol.No.2, Issue No.3.
[13] I. Clerk Hamilton, A Treatise on Robotic arms and
Control, 3rd ed., vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon, 1892, pp.68
73.
[14] I. S. Jacobs and C. P. Bean, Analysis on Robotics,, vol.
III, G. T. Rado and H. Suhl, Eds. New York: Academic,
1963, pp. 27135