Tankestyrt Mekatroniskt System - Undersökning av hur en modellbil kan styras med hjälp av hjärnaktivitet

Abstract

This thesis describes the development of a radio controlled car whose control signals are derived exclusively by reading the brain activity of the controlling individual. The utilised technology, brain computer interface (BCI), was recently made commercially available which is why the majority of implementations so far are relatively simple programs intended for recreational and educational purposes. The study explores the possibility of converting the digital signals gained from a BCI to control signals for the remote controlled car through the use of a microcontroller. The goal is to discover further uses of this technology. Since the utilised BCI hardware (MindWave Mobile) uses a predefined communications protocol, the prototype was built around these limitations. The prototype receives data from the BCI through Bluetooth and converts them to signals for the radio controlled car to recieve. In order to allow visualization and testing, the same data may be sent to an external computer. This data is received, interpreted and displayed by a program developed specifically for this purpose. The thesis also discusses and evaluates the resulting prototype, focusing on the usability and difficulty of control. It further describes other usage areas of BCI, relating them to the result. Lastly, potential improvements of the prototype are described, enabling further development. Test results shows that the resulting car is experiencing problems, mainly to do with controllability. Nevertheless, there is clearly an interest in the technology which merits further research. Any subsequent studies should however use different BCI hardware.