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UT-Austin researchers create technology to control robots through human brain
UT-Austin researchers create technology to control robots through human brain
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Katy Nelson, Senior News Reporter
February 17, 2022
UT researchers collaborated with a university in Switzerland to develop a brain-computer interface that allows people with disabilities to control robots that aid them with physical tasks through brain signaling.
A brain-computer interface allows a person to send signals directly from the brain to the computer. Researchers on the project, who worked with researchers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, demonstrated the technology on a person wearing a cap that transfers signals to a robot, researcher José Millán said. Millán said the signals are translated into data that the robot can interpret, enabling the robot to carry out a task the person may not be physically able to.
“If these individuals happen to be people with physical disabilities, it will be difficult for these people to communicate what they prefer and what they don’t prefer,” Millán said. “Instead, what we can do then is to analyze their brain signals … and we can use the signals now as a reward for certain kinds of machine learning algorithms to adapt the robot behavior to adapt better and better to our preferences.”
The researchers created an algorithm that allows the robot to learn an individual’s needs over time, said Aude Billard, a full professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. The robots can remember past situations to figure out what a user may want, Billard said.
{snip}
{snip illustration}
Katy Nelson, Senior News Reporter
February 17, 2022
UT researchers collaborated with a university in Switzerland to develop a brain-computer interface that allows people with disabilities to control robots that aid them with physical tasks through brain signaling.
A brain-computer interface allows a person to send signals directly from the brain to the computer. Researchers on the project, who worked with researchers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, demonstrated the technology on a person wearing a cap that transfers signals to a robot, researcher José Millán said. Millán said the signals are translated into data that the robot can interpret, enabling the robot to carry out a task the person may not be physically able to.
“If these individuals happen to be people with physical disabilities, it will be difficult for these people to communicate what they prefer and what they don’t prefer,” Millán said. “Instead, what we can do then is to analyze their brain signals … and we can use the signals now as a reward for certain kinds of machine learning algorithms to adapt the robot behavior to adapt better and better to our preferences.”
The researchers created an algorithm that allows the robot to learn an individual’s needs over time, said Aude Billard, a full professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. The robots can remember past situations to figure out what a user may want, Billard said.
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