35 Years Ago, Researchers Used Brain Waves to Control a Robot

Utilizing the mind to straight management an object was lengthy the stuff of science fiction, and in 1988 the imaginative and prescient grew to become a actuality.

IEEE Life Senior Member Stevo Bozinovski and Members Mihail Sestakov and Dr. Liljana Bozinovska used a scholar volunteer’s electroencephalogram (EEG) mind alerts to maneuver a robotic alongside a closed-circuit observe. Bozinovski and Sestakov had been electrical engineering and laptop science professors at Saints Cyril and Methodius University, in Skopje, North Macedonia. Bozinovska, a doctor, taught within the college’s medical college. Their achievement has paved the way in which for EEG-controlled wheelchairs and exoskeletons.

IEEE commemorated their work with an IEEE Milestone throughout a ceremony on the college on 10 October.

“The accomplishment is just not solely significant domestically,” Vladimir Atanasovski stated on the dedication ceremony. “It reveals advantages for the complete humanity.” Atanasovski is dean of the college’s electrical engineering and knowledge applied sciences college.

“It was at this very college, 35 years in the past, the place a relationship between two beforehand distant areas [robotics and EEG signals] was fashioned,” he added. “This exceptional work confirmed that science fiction can change into a actuality.

“Controlling a robotic utilizing human mind alerts for the primary time superior each electrical and laptop engineering and science, led to worldwide analysis on brain-computer interfaces, and opened an specific communication channel between robots and people.”

Utilizing engineering to reveal psychokinesis

Bozinovski, Sestakov, and Bozinovska constructed a system to ship instructions to a robotic primarily based on EEG sign processing. The tactic is noninvasive; all you must do is place electrodes on a volunteer’s scalp.

The three researchers used a Movit Line Tracer II robotic they constructed from a package from Japanese equipment store Elehobby, now known as Elekit. The robotic had two plastic discs that sat on prime of one another and held the digital parts between them. Its two wheels had been managed with a begin/cease mechanical change.

“Engineers are the driving drive in each nation, contributing to the welfare and progress of societies.”—Stevo Pendarovsk

The robotic, powered by batteries, drove on a observe drawn on a flat floor, in line with the Milestone proposal entry on the Engineering Technology and History Wiki.

However the researchers nonetheless didn’t understand how they had been going to translate the mind alerts into instructions. Bozinovska advised utilizing the EEG’s distinguished alpha-range frequency of 8 to 12 hertz—often called the mu rhythm. It’s a synchronized sample {of electrical} exercise within the a part of the mind that controls voluntary motion. The frequency will increase when an individual is relaxed and never transferring.

Bozinovska’s idea was that the sample would command the Line Tracer. Folks making an attempt to manage the robotic would obtain rest by closing their eyes. To cease the robotic from transferring, they might carry out a voluntary motion akin to opening their eyes.

Bozinovski, Sestakov, and Bozinovska designed an experiment to check her idea.

Shifting a robotic utilizing mind alerts

Two rooms had been constructed to conduct the experiment. One was known as the “robotic area,” and had a desk on which sat an oblong closed-circuit observe with markings the place the robotic could be commanded to cease.Saints Cyril and Mehtodius College/IEEE

Bozinovski and Sestakov constructed two rooms within the college’s Laboratory of Clever Machines and Bioinformation Techniques to conduct the experiment. One was known as the “robotic area,” as Bozinovski described it within the Milestone entry. Within the room was a desk on which sat an oblong closed-circuit observe with markings the place the robotic could be commanded to cease.

The second room housed the expertise together with analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, an IBM XT personal computer, a transistor amplifier, and a differential biomedical amplifier, which measured the voltage distinction between the mind’s amplitude and frequency and the time it took for them to alter. Bozinovski and Sestakov changed the mechanical change with an EEG-emulated management change that was related to the transistor amplifier. The coed volunteer sat within the second room.

A window related the 2 rooms. Wires from the D/A converter connected to the robotic hung from the ceiling, nicely out of the way in which of the robotic’s motion.

Electrodes had been positioned on the highest and heart of the volunteer’s head, close to the medial parietal cortex—the a part of the mind that completes visible scene processing. Extra had been positioned behind the correct ear, close to the mastoid, which perceives visible sensations. Others had been positioned on the brow, to gather the bottom electrical sign, from which the differential biomedical amplifier may detect if the frequency elevated.

To maneuver the robotic, the scholar relaxed, with eyes closed. The differential biomedical amplifier recorded the EEG alerts and inputted them into the pc with the assistance of the A/D converter set at 300 Hz. Recognition software program created by Bozinovski and Sestakov translated the alerts right into a go command. The pc then despatched a 5-volt logic pulse via the D/A converter—which the transistor amplifier magnified and despatched to the robotic. The volunteer was in a position to cease the Line Tracer by opening their eyes.

Bozinovski, Sestakov, and Bozinovska introduced their findings on the 1988 IEEE International Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference.

North Macedonia’s president on the significance of engineers

“Engineers are the driving drive in each nation, contributing to the welfare and progress of societies,” Stevo Pendarovski, president of North Macedonia, stated on the dedication ceremony.

“Let this genuinely distinctive occasion of nice significance for Macedonian engineering specifically, but in addition for Macedonian science and society as an entire, be an inspiration for all college students, professors, and future engineers,” Pendarovski stated, “to create and contribute to constructing a contemporary and technologically superior world.”

IEEE President Saifur Rahman additionally attended the ceremony.

A plaque recognizing the expertise is displayed exterior the Saints Cyril and Methodius College electrical engineering school constructing. The Laboratory of Clever Machines and Bioinformation Techniques, the place the Milestone was achieved, is within the constructing. It reads:

In 1988, within the Laboratory of Clever Machines and Bioinformation Techniques, human mind alerts managed the motion of a bodily object (a robotic) for the primary time worldwide. This linked electroencephalogram (EEG) alerts collected from a mind with robotics analysis, opening a brand new channel for communication between people and machines. EEG-controlled units (wheelchairs, exoskeletons, and many others.) have benefited quite a few customers and expanded expertise’s position in trendy society.

Administered by the IEEE Historical past Heart and supported by donors, the Milestone program acknowledges excellent technical developments world wide.

The IEEE North Macedonia Section sponsored the nomination.