Design of a robotic wheelchair with a motor imagery based brain-computer interface

Abstract

This paper presents a prototype for an electro-encephalogram (EEG) based brain-actuated wheelchair system using motor imagery. To overcome some of the limitations of other previous works, such as gaze dependence and unnecessary stops, five commands (left, left-diagonal, right, right-diagonal, and forward) were decoded based on the motor imagery correlates in EEG signals. Also, the system was modularized into three components: BCI control, and network. On the basis of the conclusions, we can expect a robust brain-actuated wheelchair system, which can allow the user's intention to control the wheelchair in multi-directional movements, thereby increasing the user's authority compared with many of the alternative approaches.