DEVELOPMENT OF AN ANTHROPOMORPHIC MANIPULATOR CONTROLLED BY A GLOVE WITH FLEX SENSORS BASED ON THE ESP32 MICROCONTROLLER

Abstract

The article describes the development and implementation of a control system for a 3D-printed anthropomorphic hand manipulator, controlled via a glove equipped with resistive flex sensors. The actuators are five Tower Pro MG996R servo motors, each responsible for the independent movement of an individual finger. Signals from the Flex Sensor 4.5" glove sensors are acquired by the analog-to-digital converter of the ESP32 microcontroller and converted into servo rotation angles using the map() function. The sensor calibration methodology is described, along with the hardware implementation based on voltage divider circuits with 22 kΩ resistors, and the software written in C within the Arduino IDE environment. Electrical schematics, images of the finished prototype, and the full program source code are provided. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach ensures smooth and reproducible real-time control of the manipulator.