IEEE Bionic Arm

Overview

A bionic arm project focused on embedded firmware, EMG acquisition, calibration, and real-time control. I led the firmware side, helping shape how signals were acquired, processed, and integrated into system behavior.

Problem

The team needed a reliable firmware foundation for acquiring EMG signals, calibrating inputs, and supporting responsive multi-DOF actuation in a bionic arm platform.

Objectives

• Acquire and process EMG data
• Support real-time control behavior
• Improve firmware structure and documentation
• Make the system easier to scale across a larger student team

System Architecture

EMG inputs feed into an STM32-based embedded system that handles acquisition, calibration, and control logic for downstream arm behavior.

Hardware

• STM32
• EMG sensors
• actuation hardware

Software

• C
• C++
• embedded firmware
• calibration logic

Algorithms / Processing

• EMG acquisition
• calibration workflows
• control logic

Key Decisions and Tradeoffs

• Balanced structured firmware design with rapid iteration needs
• Emphasized documentation and subsystem interfaces to improve scalability
• Focused on making acquisition and calibration workflows reliable for future integration

Biggest Challenge

One of the biggest challenges was building a firmware foundation that could support signal acquisition and control while remaining understandable to a multidisciplinary team. I addressed that by standardizing documentation and subsystem interfaces alongside the implementation.

Validation and Testing

• subsystem testing
• signal acquisition checks
• calibration workflow validation
• integration support

Impact

The project gave the team a stronger firmware structure and made it easier for new members to contribute effectively.

Next Improvements

• Add more robust signal-processing detail
• Improve validation pipelines
• Deepen actuation integration