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...pulator is developed and insight into the practicality of a BCI operated assistive manipulation device is explored with initial experimentation developed. II. BACKGROUND Conventional prosthetic and assistive devices require some minimum level of voluntary muscle control and are not appropriate for people in a severely disabled condition. Brain signals such as scalp-recorded EEG can provide alternate, non-muscular channels for communication and control. A BCI exploits these brain signals for communication directly from the brain to an output device, independent of peripheral nerves and muscles [1, 2, 3]. BCI may be used to develop new assistive communication and control technology that will allow individuals with severe neuromuscular disabilities to express their wishes to caregivers, interact with their environment, operate a neuroprosthesis, operate a personal computer, and in this case control a precision modem robotic manipulator. Modem life-support technology can significantly extend the life spans of these individuals, potentially prolonging the personal, social, and economic burdens. The hope is that the merging of BCI and robotics technology will greatly improve the quality of life f...

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...pulator is developed and insight into the practicality of a BCI operated assistive manipulation device is explored with initial experimentation developed. II. BACKGROUND Conventional prosthetic and assistive devices require some minimum level of voluntary muscle control and are not appropriate for people in a severely disabled condition. Brain signals such as scalp-recorded EEG can provide alternate, non-muscular channels for communication and control. A BCI exploits these brain signals for communication directly from the brain to an output device, independent of peripheral nerves and muscles [1, 2, 3]. BCI may be used to develop new assistive communication and control technology that will allow individuals with severe neuromuscular disabilities to express their wishes to caregivers, interact with their environment, operate a neuroprosthesis, operate a personal computer, and in this case control a precision modem robotic manipulator. Modem life-support technology can significantly extend the life spans of these individuals, potentially prolonging the personal, social, and economic burdens. The hope is that the merging of BCI and robotics technology will greatly improve the quality of life f...

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...greatly improve the quality of life for individuals and relieve some of the associated burdens for care giving. Robotic manipulators have been widely used over the past few decades. Early applications include material handling and industrial automation while more recent and more advanced applications include surgery. Various control strategies have been developed over the decades with some of these applied to both single manipulator robots and to robots with multiple manipulators. The need for dual-arm robots has been recognized in physical systems implementations among the control strategies [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. Cooperative manipulation is an important enhancement to robotic capabilities as a dual-arm robot is able to perform more complex tasks, manipulate multiple objects, and spans a greater workspace as would be useful in care giving. Personal robots, including assistive devices, are surveyed in [13]. III. METHOD FOR INTERFACE AND ROBOT APPLICATION In this application, the control of Staubli TX40 robots is achieved by implementation of a BCI by interpretation of low voltage EEG brain signals interfaced using BCI2000 software. The brain waves are acquired directly from the scalp using a cap with m...

Citation Context

...greatly improve the quality of life for individuals and relieve some of the associated burdens for care giving. Robotic manipulators have been widely used over the past few decades. Early applications include material handling and industrial automation while more recent and more advanced applications include surgery. Various control strategies have been developed over the decades with some of these applied to both single manipulator robots and to robots with multiple manipulators. The need for dual-arm robots has been recognized in physical systems implementations among the control strategies [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. Cooperative manipulation is an important enhancement to robotic capabilities as a dual-arm robot is able to perform more complex tasks, manipulate multiple objects, and spans a greater workspace as would be useful in care giving. Personal robots, including assistive devices, are surveyed in [13]. III. METHOD FOR INTERFACE AND ROBOT APPLICATION In this application, the control of Staubli TX40 robots is achieved by implementation of a BCI by interpretation of low voltage EEG brain signals interfaced using BCI2000 software. The brain waves are acquired directly from the scalp using a cap with m...

Citation Context

...greatly improve the quality of life for individuals and relieve some of the associated burdens for care giving. Robotic manipulators have been widely used over the past few decades. Early applications include material handling and industrial automation while more recent and more advanced applications include surgery. Various control strategies have been developed over the decades with some of these applied to both single manipulator robots and to robots with multiple manipulators. The need for dual-arm robots has been recognized in physical systems implementations among the control strategies [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. Cooperative manipulation is an important enhancement to robotic capabilities as a dual-arm robot is able to perform more complex tasks, manipulate multiple objects, and spans a greater workspace as would be useful in care giving. Personal robots, including assistive devices, are surveyed in [13]. III. METHOD FOR INTERFACE AND ROBOT APPLICATION In this application, the control of Staubli TX40 robots is achieved by implementation of a BCI by interpretation of low voltage EEG brain signals interfaced using BCI2000 software. The brain waves are acquired directly from the scalp using a cap with m...

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...he robotic manipulator is developed and the early stages of insight into the practicality of a BCI operated assistive manipulation device are explored. KEY WORDS: Biomedical Robot Application, Brain-Computer Interface I. INTRODUCTION A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is a system that allows individuals with severe neuromuscular disorders to communicate and control devices using their brain waves. It has been demonstrated that a non invasive scalp-recorded ElectroEncephaloGraphy (EEG) based BCI paradigm can be used by a disabled individual for long-term, reliable control of a personal computer [3]. This BCI paradigm allows users to select from a set of symbols presented in a flashing visual matrix by classifying the resulting evoked brain responses. The same BCI paradigm and techniques used for the aforementioned demonstration can be straightforwardly implemented to generate high-level commands for controlling a robotic manipulator in three dimensions according to user intent. The robot application is envisioned to provide superior dimensional control over alternative BCI techniques, as well as provide a wider variety of practical functions for performing everyday tasks. This paper des...

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...greatly improve the quality of life for individuals and relieve some of the associated burdens for care giving. Robotic manipulators have been widely used over the past few decades. Early applications include material handling and industrial automation while more recent and more advanced applications include surgery. Various control strategies have been developed over the decades with some of these applied to both single manipulator robots and to robots with multiple manipulators. The need for dual-arm robots has been recognized in physical systems implementations among the control strategies [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. Cooperative manipulation is an important enhancement to robotic capabilities as a dual-arm robot is able to perform more complex tasks, manipulate multiple objects, and spans a greater workspace as would be useful in care giving. Personal robots, including assistive devices, are surveyed in [13]. III. METHOD FOR INTERFACE AND ROBOT APPLICATION In this application, the control of Staubli TX40 robots is achieved by implementation of a BCI by interpretation of low voltage EEG brain signals interfaced using BCI2000 software. The brain waves are acquired directly from the scalp using a cap with m...

Citation Context

...greatly improve the quality of life for individuals and relieve some of the associated burdens for care giving. Robotic manipulators have been widely used over the past few decades. Early applications include material handling and industrial automation while more recent and more advanced applications include surgery. Various control strategies have been developed over the decades with some of these applied to both single manipulator robots and to robots with multiple manipulators. The need for dual-arm robots has been recognized in physical systems implementations among the control strategies [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. Cooperative manipulation is an important enhancement to robotic capabilities as a dual-arm robot is able to perform more complex tasks, manipulate multiple objects, and spans a greater workspace as would be useful in care giving. Personal robots, including assistive devices, are surveyed in [13]. III. METHOD FOR INTERFACE AND ROBOT APPLICATION In this application, the control of Staubli TX40 robots is achieved by implementation of a BCI by interpretation of low voltage EEG brain signals interfaced using BCI2000 software. The brain waves are acquired directly from the scalp using a cap with m...

Citation Context

...greatly improve the quality of life for individuals and relieve some of the associated burdens for care giving. Robotic manipulators have been widely used over the past few decades. Early applications include material handling and industrial automation while more recent and more advanced applications include surgery. Various control strategies have been developed over the decades with some of these applied to both single manipulator robots and to robots with multiple manipulators. The need for dual-arm robots has been recognized in physical systems implementations among the control strategies [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. Cooperative manipulation is an important enhancement to robotic capabilities as a dual-arm robot is able to perform more complex tasks, manipulate multiple objects, and spans a greater workspace as would be useful in care giving. Personal robots, including assistive devices, are surveyed in [13]. III. METHOD FOR INTERFACE AND ROBOT APPLICATION In this application, the control of Staubli TX40 robots is achieved by implementation of a BCI by interpretation of low voltage EEG brain signals interfaced using BCI2000 software. The brain waves are acquired directly from the scalp using a cap with m...

Citation Context

...greatly improve the quality of life for individuals and relieve some of the associated burdens for care giving. Robotic manipulators have been widely used over the past few decades. Early applications include material handling and industrial automation while more recent and more advanced applications include surgery. Various control strategies have been developed over the decades with some of these applied to both single manipulator robots and to robots with multiple manipulators. The need for dual-arm robots has been recognized in physical systems implementations among the control strategies [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. Cooperative manipulation is an important enhancement to robotic capabilities as a dual-arm robot is able to perform more complex tasks, manipulate multiple objects, and spans a greater workspace as would be useful in care giving. Personal robots, including assistive devices, are surveyed in [13]. III. METHOD FOR INTERFACE AND ROBOT APPLICATION In this application, the control of Staubli TX40 robots is achieved by implementation of a BCI by interpretation of low voltage EEG brain signals interfaced using BCI2000 software. The brain waves are acquired directly from the scalp using a cap with m...

Citation Context

...greatly improve the quality of life for individuals and relieve some of the associated burdens for care giving. Robotic manipulators have been widely used over the past few decades. Early applications include material handling and industrial automation while more recent and more advanced applications include surgery. Various control strategies have been developed over the decades with some of these applied to both single manipulator robots and to robots with multiple manipulators. The need for dual-arm robots has been recognized in physical systems implementations among the control strategies [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. Cooperative manipulation is an important enhancement to robotic capabilities as a dual-arm robot is able to perform more complex tasks, manipulate multiple objects, and spans a greater workspace as would be useful in care giving. Personal robots, including assistive devices, are surveyed in [13]. III. METHOD FOR INTERFACE AND ROBOT APPLICATION In this application, the control of Staubli TX40 robots is achieved by implementation of a BCI by interpretation of low voltage EEG brain signals interfaced using BCI2000 software. The brain waves are acquired directly from the scalp using a cap with m...

Citation Context

...us control strategies have been developed over the decades with some of these applied to both single manipulator robots and to robots with multiple manipulators. The need for dual-arm robots has been recognized in physical systems implementations among the control strategies [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. Cooperative manipulation is an important enhancement to robotic capabilities as a dual-arm robot is able to perform more complex tasks, manipulate multiple objects, and spans a greater workspace as would be useful in care giving. Personal robots, including assistive devices, are surveyed in [13]. III. METHOD FOR INTERFACE AND ROBOT APPLICATION In this application, the control of Staubli TX40 robots is achieved by implementation of a BCI by interpretation of low voltage EEG brain signals interfaced using BCI2000 software. The brain waves are acquired directly from the scalp using a cap with metallic electrodes as shown in Figure 4. Predictable transient amplitude deflections, known as P300 evoked potentials, are generated in the EEG as the BCI user concentrates on one of the flashing light command icons on the monitor. The P300 signals are captured and processed by the BCI2000 softwar...

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...flashing light command icons on the monitor. The P300 signals are captured and processed by the BCI2000 software. The signals are obtained by the middleware that performs as a buffer system for the input signals to the robot. The middleware layer acts as a buffer for the control commands and as a translation layer to the robot. The signals are relayed to the robot controller via socket communication using TCP/IP protocol over a network. Once the controller receives the signals, the VAL3 program for the robot interprets the signals and the manipulator arm moves accordingly. 3.1 BCI2000 BCI2000 [14] is a general purpose BCI stimulus presentation and biosignal recording package that includes a software application called the P3Speller. A sample 6x6 P3Speller alphanumeric symbol matrix is shown in Figure 1. The user focuses on the desired symbol while the rows and columns flash in a randomized pattern. A P300 response should be elicited when the column or row containing the desired symbol is flashed. After a predetermined sequence of flashes, the desired symbol is predicted by a user specific P300 classifier in BCI2000 and online feedback is provided to the user. The predicted symbol can ...

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...grees of freedom (six-axis robots) that are capable of fully emulating the human arms thus making them a suitable choice when performing common care-taking tasks. SeN link> VAUl PLe Spg �OU1pu1S Figure 2. Stiiubli VAL3 System [151 ISSN(Online): 2320-9801 ISSN (Print): 2320-9798 International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering (An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization) Vol. 2, Issue 1, January 2014 Copyright to IJIRCCE www.ijircce.com 2435 3.3 Middleware forInterface ofBCI2000 to theStiiubli TX40 This section briefly discusses the middleware software layer [16] that facilitates communication between the P3Speller application of the BCI2000 software package and the Staubli VAL3 application that is controlling a Staubli TX40 industrial robot. The middleware buffers control commands produced by BCI2000 for consumption by the TX40 robot communications. The middleware also addresses the differences between the arbitrary control command format produced by BCI2000 and the format expected by the VAL3 robot software. The middleware uses a first-in first-out (FIFO) queue structure that accounts for both overproduction of commands from the BCI2000 and over-con...

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... a 4x4 color-based array. Control of the robot using the P300 signals is implemented so that the robot picks and places the blocks based on the screen position that the human user is focusing. Horizontal and vertical rows are flashed to modulate the brain-wave signal read by the BCI2000. The application is to stack the objects through the EEG signals obtained using the BCI2000. A logic algorithm is added to the robotic application to avoid the possibility of over stacking the objects. Logic tracking using VAL3 is used to maintain knowledge of the object locations with respect to the robot arm [17, 18]. The robot application of a brain computer interface to the Staubli TX40 robots in its early stages is shown in Figure 4. The user is wearing a EEG cap that transmits signals to the BCI2000. P300 signals are generated as the patient concentrates on one of the flashing light command icons on the monitor. The P300 signals generated by the BCI2000 represent grid locations in the colored 4x4 grid. The user simply concentrates on the location of the grid that he or she desires to either pick or place an object. This is done without any use of voice or muscle interaction from the user. The intent o...

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... a 4x4 color-based array. Control of the robot using the P300 signals is implemented so that the robot picks and places the blocks based on the screen position that the human user is focusing. Horizontal and vertical rows are flashed to modulate the brain-wave signal read by the BCI2000. The application is to stack the objects through the EEG signals obtained using the BCI2000. A logic algorithm is added to the robotic application to avoid the possibility of over stacking the objects. Logic tracking using VAL3 is used to maintain knowledge of the object locations with respect to the robot arm [17, 18]. The robot application of a brain computer interface to the Staubli TX40 robots in its early stages is shown in Figure 4. The user is wearing a EEG cap that transmits signals to the BCI2000. P300 signals are generated as the patient concentrates on one of the flashing light command icons on the monitor. The P300 signals generated by the BCI2000 represent grid locations in the colored 4x4 grid. The user simply concentrates on the location of the grid that he or she desires to either pick or place an object. This is done without any use of voice or muscle interaction from the user. The intent o...