Towards Independence: A BCI Telepresence Robot for People With Severe Motor Disabilities

• Published in: Proceedings of the IEEE Vol. 103; no. 6; pp. 969 - 982
• Main Authors: Leeb, Robert, Tonin, Luca, Rohm, Martin, Desideri, Lorenzo, Carlson, Tom, Millan, Jose del R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.06.2015; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Application control; brain-computer interface (BCI); Brain-computer interfaces; Computer interfaces; electroencephalogram (EEG); Electroencephalography; end-users with motor disabilities; Medical robots; Mobile robots; motor imagery; Performance evaluation; Robot sensing systems; robotic device; shared control; telepresence; Wheelchairs; brain–computer interface (BCI); end-users with motor disabilities; shared control; motor imagery; telepresence; robotic device; electroencephalogram (EEG); Application control
• ISSN: 0018-9219; 1558-2256
• DOI: 10.1109/JPROC.2015.2419736

This paper presents an important step forward towards increasing the independence of people with severe motor disabilities, by using brain-computer interfaces to harness the power of the Internet of Things. We analyze the stability of brain signals as end-users with motor disabilities progress from performing simple standard on-screen training tasks to interacting with real devices in the real world. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the concept of shared control-which interprets the user's commands in context-empowers users to perform rather complex tasks without a high workload. We present the results of nine end-users with motor disabilities who were able to complete navigation tasks with a telepresence robot successfully in a remote environment (in some cases in a different country) that they had never previously visited. Moreover, these end-users achieved similar levels of performance to a control group of 10 healthy users who were already familiar with the environment.