Asynchronous Control of a Spherical Robot by Means of SSVEP-based Brain-Computer Interface

Abstract

Controlling a mobile robot in its environment can be very challenging. There is a large number of different interfaces available to navigate a robot, but they require in many cases expert knowledge in the field of robotics. This work addresses a new approach to control a robotic system with a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). The key idea is to use the steady state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) BCI technology as a robust and performant interface for the control of external devices. In this preliminary study, the BCI is connected to an asynchronous control concept to move the robot in the same room as the operator. It will be shown within this work, how participants control a spherical robot in the laboratory settings. The performance of five healthy participants was evaluated in an online experiment. All participants were able to successfully navigate the Sphero robot out of the laboratory room with a mean information transfer rate (ITR) of 23.67 bpm.