Brain controlled robots

Abstract

In January 2008, Duke University and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) publicized their successful control of a brain‐machine interface for a humanoid robot by a monkey brain across the Pacific Ocean. The activities of a few hundred neurons were recorded from a monkey's motor cortex in Miguel Nicolelis's lab at Duke University, and the kinematic features of monkey locomotion on a treadmill were decoded from neural firing rates in real time. The decoded information was sent to a humanoid robot, CB‐i, in ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories located in Kyoto, Japan. This robot was developed by the JST International Collaborative Research Project (ICORP) as the “Computational Brain Project.” CB‐i's locomotion‐like movement was video‐recorded and projected on a screen in front of the monkey. Although the bidirectional communication used a conventional Internet connection, its delay was suppressed below one over several seconds, partly due to a video‐streaming technique, and this encouraged the monkey's voluntary locomotion and influenced its brain activity. This commentary introduces the background and future directions of the brain‐controlled robot.