A Multimodal Brain-arm Interface for Operation of Complex Robotic Systems and Upper Limb Motor Recovery

This work introduces the architecture of a novel brain-arm haptic interface usable to improve the operation of complex robotic systems, or to deliver a fine rehabilitation therapy to the human upper limb. The proposed control scheme combines different approaches from the areas of robotics, neuroscience and human-machine interaction in order to overcome the limitations of each single field. Via the adaptive Brain Reading Interface (aBRI) user movements are anticipated by classification of surface electroencephalographic data in a millisecond range. This information is afterwards integrated into the control strategy of a wearable exoskeleton in order to finely modulate its impedance and therefore to comply with the motion preparation of the user. Results showing the efficacy of the proposed control approach are presented for the single joint case.