Thought controlled robotics

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Thought controlled robotics

Introduction

People with paralyzing diseases or injuries are dependent on others and can only imagine what it is like to have freedom of movement. However with recent advancements in thought-controlled robotics, things are looking brighter for them. With this technology they would be able control robotic limbs through mere thought and indeed imagining might be all that they need to move.

Overview of the technology

(Monkey Brain Operates machine - BBC News)

In recent times there has been much research into the area of Neuroengineering. This journal will focus in particular on the area of thought-controlled robotics. A pioneer in this field is Dr Miguel Nicolelis, a neuroscientist at Duke University. Dr Nicolelis was featured in 2000 for his experiment on 2 monkeys, where brain signals were used to drive a robotic arm. As the monkeys reached out to pick up some food off a tray, an artificial neural system linked into its head replicated this action in the robotic arm.

This is not the first time that a device has been operated by “brain power” alone. For example in 1999 scientists from Germany developed a computer system that interpreted brainwaves, allowing people who were completely paralyzed to communicate. In the same year, Dr John Chapin, of the MCP Hahnemann University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, trained rats to obtain water from a robotic arm through brain activity alone.

However Dr Nicolelis’s experiment marks a significant step forward in terms of sophistication and sets new benchmarks because it is able to process larger amounts of neural information at a faster speed to produce more sophisticated robotic movements. When the monkeys moved, the computer would process their brain signals to make parallel, instantaneous, three-dimensional movements in the robotic arm. In contrast the robotic arm used in the experiment with rats was only able to move in one dimension. Another breakthrough was the fact that using a standard internet connection, the signals from the monkeys were able to control another robotic arm in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Laboratory 600 miles away

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How it works                                                                                                               (Imagining Thought-Controlled Movements for Humans- The New York Times)              

This ability to make machines that respond to thoughts rests on the fundamental properties of the nervous system.  Our brains plan every movement our body carries out ...

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