Brain Controlled Wheelchair

Many individuals have motor disability preventing them from using a wheelchair using conventional access methods. We are developing a Collaborative Wheelchair Assistant (CWA) to help these persons gaining motion independence. Our approach consists in simplifying maneuvering by providing virtual paths along which the wheelchair is guided.

Path guidance enables efficient movement despite limited motion control such as poor coordination, pathological tremor or limited memory. By relying on the planning ability of the user, complex sensor processing and decisions system are not needed, making the system simple and low-cost. We have developed simple and efficient tools to trace guiding paths and to adapt these paths to changes in the environment or wishes of the user.

We are currently performing experiments with human subjects in collaboration with the Society for the Physically Disabled in Singapore.

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In collaboration with I2R, we are also developing a Brain Controlled Wheelchair for individuals who cannot use a joystick, for example people with no muscular output at all or ALS patients.

To select an action of the above menu, one must focus on one of the randomly flashing buttons above. A P300 signal corresponding to the surprise is emitted in the brain, detected by the system and used to infer which next action is desired. The buttons displayed correspond to locations on the guiding path map, or to other context dependent commands (e.g. in front of a lift the interface displays the list of levels).

Selected Publications

• B. Rebsamen, E. Burdet, C. Guan, Q. Zeng, M. Ang, and C.Laugier, Hybrid P300 and Mu-Beta Brain Computer Interface to operate a Brain Controlled Wheelchair, in IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2007.
• B. Rebsamen, E. Burdet, C. Guan, H. Zhang, C.L. Teo, Q. Zeng, M. Ang and C. Laugier, Controlling a wheelchair using a BCI with low information transfer rate, Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), Noordwijk An Zee, The Netherlands, June 2007
• Brice Rebsamen et al, Controlling a Wheelchair Indoors using Thought, IEEE Intelligent Systems, March/April 2007.
• Brice Rebsamen et al, A Brain-Controlled Wheelchair Based on P300 and Path Guidance. IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob), 2006
• Qiang Zeng et al, Design of a Collaborative Wheelchair with Path Guidance Assistance. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2006
• E.S. Boy, C.L. Teo and E. Burdet, Collaborative Wheelchair Assistant. IEEE/RJS Int. Conf. on Robotics and Intelligent Systems (IROS) 2:1511-6, 2002

People Involved

The Brain Controlled Wheelchair is a collaborative project between

• the control and mechatronics laboratory at the National University of Singapore (Brice REBSAMEN, ZENG Qiang, Marcelo ANG and TEO Chee Leong)
• the group of Etienne BURDET at Imperial College London, UK
• the Neuro Signal processing lab at I2R/A*STAR (GUAN Cuntai)
• the eMotion team at INRIA Rhône-Alpes, France (Christian LAUGIER)

Contacts

{brice,zengqiang,teocl} [at] nus.edu.sg; e.burdet [at] imperial.ac.uk