A Self-Paced BCI With a Collaborative Controller for Highly Reliable Wheelchair Driving: Experimental Tests With Physically Disabled Individuals

Brain-controlled wheelchairs (BCWs) are a promising solution for people with severe motor disabilities, who cannot use conventional interfaces. However, the low reliability of electroencephalographic signal decoding and high user's workload imposed by continuous control wheelchair requires effective approaches. In this article, we propose self-paced P300-based brain–computer interface (BCI) combined dynamic time-window commands collaborative controller. The approach allows users to switch between noncontrol states without requiring any additional task or mental strategy, while allow balancing speed BCI. controller, combining intentions navigation information, offers possibility navigate in complex environments improve overall system reliability. feasibility proposed impact each component (self-paced, time window, controller) systematically validated set experiments conducted seven able-bodied participants six physically disabled steering robotic real-office-like environments. These two groups controlled BCW final driving accuracy greater than 99%. Quantitative subjective results, assessed through questionnaires, attest effectiveness approach. Altogether, these findings contribute improving usability BCWs and, hence, potential their target home settings.