Development of real-time brain-computer interface control system for robot

Abstract

Electroencephalogram (EEG)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCI) have been considered a prevailing non-invasive method for collecting human biomedical signals by attaching electrodes to the scalp. However, it is difficult to detect and use these signals to control an online BCI robot in a real environment owing to environmental noise. In this study, a novel state recognition model is proposed to determine and improve EEG signal states. First, a Long Short-Term Memory Convolutional Neural Network (LSTM-CNN) was designed to extract EEG features along the time sequence. During this process, errors caused by the randomness of the mind or external environmental factors may be generated. Thus, an actor-critic based decision-making model was proposed to correct these errors. The model consists of two networks that can be used to predict the final signal state based on both the current signal state probability and past signal state probabilities. Subsequently, a hybrid BCI real-time control system application is proposed to control a BCI robot. The Unicorn Hybrid Black EEG device was used to acquire brain signals. A data transmission system was constructed using OpenViBE to transfer data. An EEG classification system was built to classify the BCI commands. In this experiment, EEG data from five subjects were collected to train and test the performance and reliability of the proposed control system. The system records the time spent by the robot and the moving distance. Experimental results were provided to demonstrate the feasibility of the real-time control system. Compared to similar BCI studies, the proposed hybrid BCI real-time control system can accurately classify seven BCI commands in a more reliable and precise manner. Overall, the offline testing accuracy was 87.20%. When we apply the proposed system to control a BCI robot in a real environment, the average online control accuracy is 93.12%, and the mean information transmission rate is 67.07 bits/min, which is better than those of some state-of-the-art control systems. This shows that the proposed hybrid BCI real-time control system demonstrated higher reliability, which can be used in practical BCI control applications.