Brain-Computer Interface for high-level control of rehabilitation robotic systems

In this work, a brain-computer interface (BCI) based on steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) is presented as an input device for the human machine interface (HMI) of the semi-autonomous robot FRIEND II. The role of the BCI is to translate high-level requests from the user into control commands for the FRIEND II system. In the current application, the BCI is used to navigate a menu system and to select commands such as pouring a beverage into a glass. The low-level control of the test platform, the rehabilitation robot FRIEND II, is executed by the control architecture MASSiVE, which in turn is served by a planning instance, an environment model and a set of sensors (e.g., machine vision) and actors. The BCI is introduced as a step towards the goal of providing disabled users with at least 1.5 hours independence from care givers.