---
title: "Non-Invasive Brain-Actuated Control of a Mobile Robot"
authors:
  - "José del R. Millán"
  - "Frédéric Renkens"
  - "Josep Mouriño"
  - "Wulfram Gerstner"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/2003/160"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/2003/0160.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 2003
pages: "1121-1125"
track: ""
keywords:
---

# Non-Invasive Brain-Actuated Control of a Mobile Robot

José del R. Millán, Frédéric Renkens, Josep Mouriño, Wulfram Gerstner

*Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 1121-1125.

## Abstract

Recent experiments have indicated the possibility to use the brain electrical activity to directly control the movement of robotics or prosthetic devices. In this paper we report results with a portable non-invasive brain-computer interface that makes possible the continuous control of a mobile robot in a house-like environment. The interface uses 8 surface electrodes to measure electroencephalogram (EEG) signals from which a statistical classifier recognizes 3 different mental states . Until now, brain-actuated control of robots has relied on invasive approachesrequiring surgical implantation of electrodessince EEG-based systems have been considered too slow for controlling rapid and complex sequences of movements. Here we show that, after a few days of training, two human subjects successfully moved a robot between several rooms by mental control only. Furthermore, mental control was only marginally worse than manual control on the same task.