Stepping-stones to Transhumanism: An EMG-controlled Low-cost Prosthetic Hand for Academia

Over the past decades, humans have redesign themselves with the intent to evolve beyond their current physical and mental limitations. This phenomenon has been known as transhumanism, wherein robotics and biomimetics have been exploiting the unique designs of the human body with the intent to develop disruptive anthropomorphic artificial appendages. Nevertheless, while lower extremity prosthetics have evolved to the point at which lower leg amputees may be competitive with professional runners in the world, there is still a gap between upper extremity prosthetics and real hands. This work intends to be a pioneer into developing a low-cost multipurpose robotic hand for research and academia. This paper describes the robotic hand, including its electromechanical development and full ROS integration. Moreover, the paper also presents a MatLab framework designed to introduce sequence data classification, namely providing the ability to control the robotic hand using electromyography (EMG) signals from the forearm. This paper expects to contribute to an ever-increasing human-robot symbiosis by motivating students to engage in transhumanism studies using more sophisticated technologies and methods.