European researchers develop thought-controlled robot

Navigating the robot--Screenshot courtesy of Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

A team of engineers from Switzerland's Defitech Foundation Chair in Brain-Machine Interface have developed a robot that is controlled from afar via mental commands.

Using an electrode-studded hat, 19 subjects, including 9 with motor disabilities, were able to navigate the robot through a Swiss laboratory by transmitting mental instructions over the Internet via a brain-computer interface, demonstrating the power of the "Internet of things."

"Each of the 9 subjects with disabilities managed to remotely control the robot with ease after less than 10 days of training," said José del R. Millán, a professor at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and head of the foundation, in a university press release.

The subjects gave the robots instructions from as far away as Italy or Germany based on a video camera that filmed its surroundings. If no command was given over the brain-machine interface, the robot continued to travel in the indicated direction until instructed to stop.

The robot displayed a video of the remote pilot via Skype. The team hopes the robot can someday be used to enhance the lives of people with disabilities by making it easier for them to visit others virtually.

"For this to happen, insurance companies will have to help finance these technologies," Millán said in the release.

The research concludes the European Tools for Brain-Computer Interaction project. Further details are available in the Proceedings of the IEEE.

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