Noninvasive Electroencephalogram Based Control of a Robotic Arm for Writing Task Using Hybrid BCI System

Abstract EN

A novel hybrid brain-computer interface (BCI) based on the electroencephalogram (EEG) signal which consists of a motor imagery- (MI-) based online interactive brain-controlled switch, “teeth clenching” state detector, and a steady-state visual evoked potential- (SSVEP-) based BCI was proposed to provide multidimensional BCI control.

MI-based BCI was used as single-pole double throw brain switch (SPDTBS).

By combining the SPDTBS with 4-class SSEVP-based BCI, movement of robotic arm was controlled in three-dimensional (3D) space.

In addition, muscle artifact (EMG) of “teeth clenching” condition recorded from EEG signal was detected and employed as interrupter, which can initialize the statement of SPDTBS.

Real-time writing task was implemented to verify the reliability of the proposed noninvasive hybrid EEG-EMG-BCI.

Eight subjects participated in this study and succeeded to manipulate a robotic arm in 3D space to write some English letters.

The mean decoding accuracy of writing task was 0.93±0.03.

Four subjects achieved the optimal criteria of writing the word “HI” which is the minimum movement of robotic arm directions (15 steps).

Other subjects had needed to take from 2 to 4 additional steps to finish the whole process.

These results suggested that our proposed hybrid noninvasive EEG-EMG-BCI was robust and efficient for real-time multidimensional robotic arm control.