EEG Based Human Brain Controlled Robotic

Vehicle
Ganesh Roya, b, Arijit Senb, Animesh Bhattacharyyab, Subhasis Bhaumika
a
Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal-711103, India; bCentral Institute of Technology,
Kokrajhar, Assam-783370, India

Abstract-Assistive robotic technology has gained a lot of attention among many other
research fields of robotics now a days. The main motto of this method is to help the various
disabled people to their day to day activity by utilising a sort of artificial robotic medium. In
this paper a robotic vehicle is designed and controlled by taking the command signal from the
user’s brain using BCI technology. The EEG signal has been captured by using a single
channel sensor viz. Neurosky Mindwave Headset. The Arduino microcontroller is used to
control the motion of a three wheel robotic vehicle by taking the commands from the sensor
via Bluetooth technology. Direction of the movement of the vehicle can easily be maintained
by simply the user’s attention level according to his choice.
Keywords-BCI technology, EEG, robotic vehicle, Neurosky Mindwave Headset.
1 Introduction
Among many fields of robotics, assistive robotic technologies have been able to draw much
attention of the current research community around the world. Recent developments in
assistive robotic technology serves in many ways to the mankind. It is a well-known fact that
in current global society, the number of aged population and the percentage of aged
population are increasing rapidly [2]. For addition of this, with increasing number of
physically weak people (aged, injured, slightly disabled or handicapped) the working
percentage is decreasing and taking vehicle of physically weak individuals has become a
problem. Therefore, usually such physically weak individuals are forced to take vehicle of
themselves. However, it may not be an easy task to maintain a normal daily life for such
individuals in the society. In light of these problems, assistive robotic technology has opened
the new paths to assist and improve the living standards of those people. Especially, assistive
robots are playing a major role in assisting and rehabilitating of physically weak, old, injured
or disabled people.
The brain serves as the central part of all the nervous system of a human being. The electrical
activity of the brain is changed when a human thinking changes. The electrical activity is
known as brain signals. There are two ways by which the brain signal can be measured. One
is invasive technique and another is non-invasive technique. In the invasive technique the
electrodes are placed inside the brain. Whether in non-invasive technique an electrode cap
has to be worn over the scalp of the user. In the present study non-invasive type sensor is
used to detect the brain signal. This technique of measurement of the electrical activity of the
brain is known as EEG (Electroencephalogram). If the detected signal can fulfil the user’s
wish after processing the signal in a computer, then the system is known as Brain Computer
Interface (BCI) system [1].
As an example of assistive robot, the robotic vehicle may be used to move a disabled person
according to his desire by controlling his attention level. As an application, this vehicle
technology may be used for the movement of a wheel chair [3]. In another study by using the
same methodology the movement of a prosthetic arm is possible with an accuracy level of
80% [4]. Previously the robotic vehicle has been designed by using the EEG signal [5], but
detail study was overlooked. In this paper first of all the frequency band of the detected raw
brainwaves is found out with the help of Fast Fourier Transform in MATLAB. It is found that
the working brain signal of the present work falls on the β wave range (16-31Hz). After that
the robotic vehicle is designed using two dc geared motor and one caster wheel. Then a
microcontroller (Arduino) is coupled with the dc geared motors using L293D driver IC and
performs the command getting signal from the brain wave sensor via HC-05 Bluetooth
interface. Lastly depending upon the user’s attention level the robotic vehicle is moved into
four directions like forward, backward, left turn and right turn with accuracy. Also the system
accuracy is tested and obtained a satisfactory result.
2 Method of Approach
The brain controlled robotic vehicle is based on EEG signal. The movement direction is
totally controlled by the command signal generated from human brain attention. This Brain
Computer Interfacing is done by following the block diagram shown in the Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. The Overall System Block Diagram

To complete the design of this overall system four steps are required viz. Acquisition of the
signal, Processing of the signal, Communicate the signal and Signal Mapping to the robotic
vehicle.
2.1 Acquisition of the Signal
The EEG signal is recorded from the user’s brain in this phase. There are generally five
number of signals that generates from the different parts of the brain. They are classified
according to their frequency band. The location and the various states of the mental condition
also effects on the behaviours of the waveform of the acquired brain signal [1]. All the
information has been tabulated in the Table 1.
 Table 1. Five EEG Signals and Their Location and Mental states
Sl. Name of Location of the Signals on the Mental States and Condition Frequen
No the Scalp cy(Hz)
. Signals
i. Delta
I (δ) Front side for adults, back Unconscious mind, deep or <4
side for children dreamless sleep
ii. Theta
I (θ) When the hands are not at Intuitive, recall, fantasy, 4-7
i work imaginary, dream
iii. Alpha
I Generally on the back side of Formerly SMR, relaxed yet 8-15
(α)
i head, but at rest time found on focused, integrated
i central sites, amplitude is high
iv. Beta
I (β) Mostly evident on front side, Aware of surroundings and 16-31
v amplitude is low self, thinking about
something
v. Gamma Somato sensory cortex Information Processing, 32+
(γ) Cognition,

According to Table 1, it is observed that the location of β waves is most evident frontally. So
the sensor has been connected in the forehead. Another point is to be noted that the frequency
band is (16-31 Hz) and it is a low amplitude wave.
EEG acquisition system is one of the most important parts in any application that used EEG
signals. Different types of EEG signal acquisition systems have been developed and their
features and capabilities may different from each other. However, basically in any EEG
acquisition system, EEG signals are measured by EEG electrodes. Normally these EEG
electrodes are holding on a cap that can be worn over the head. Then as the measured signals
are weak, they are amplified. Finally, those amplified analog signals are digitized before
sending to a computer. Fig. 2 depicts a very low cost EEG acquisition system (Neurosky
Mindwave Headset) is being used in the present study. There is a dry electrode present in the
Neurosky Headset which is placed on the left side of the user’s forehead. One reference
electrode is also there which will be connected on the left ear lobe. The headset consists of a
special electronic circuit to measure the signal detected by the single electrode. That circuit is
powered by an AAA battery [7]. After detecting brain signal the circuit transmit the signal
wirelessly via Bluetooth technology to the laptop. Every Neurosky product or partner product
consists of a ThinkGear chip inside. That ThinkGear chip is responsible for interfacing
between the headset and the human brain [7]. The ThinkGear technology includes the
forehead sensor electrode, the ear lobe reference electrode and the on-board chip. The brain
waves, attention and meditation are calculated on that chip.
 Fig. 2. Neurosky Mindwave Headset
2.2 Processing of the signal
The brain signal is taken into the laptop from the Neurosky Mindwave Headset using
Bluetooth technology. The MATLAB software is already installed in the laptop. Therefore in
this stage a MATLAB code is run in the laptop to acquire the raw brainwaves signal. Here
one point should be noted that the serial communication port of the MATLAB code and the
port used by the ThinkGear module should be matched. Then the frequency band of the raw
signal is determined. For the present case the band is β wave (16-32Hz). Also the signal
attention level, meditation level, spectrum etc. can be monitored using another software
called Neuroview.
2.3 Communicating the signal
The brain signal is to be communicated between the EEG headset and the Arduino
microcontroller. The Arduino couldn’t support the Bluetooth signal directly. Therefore a
Bluetooth module HC-05 is connected with the Arduino. The module HC-05 is a Bluetooth
Serial Port Protocol (SPP). The serial communication technique is used for this module to
interface between the microcontroller and the EEG headset. HC-05 provides two switching
mode viz. master and slave. It indicates that HC-05 does not receive or transmit data.
2.4 Signal Mapping to the robotic vehicle
The signal generated from the EEG headset is required to map with the robotic vehicle. The
prototype robotic vehicle structure is prepared on a plywood chassis. Three wheels are
connected with the chassis. Two wheels are attached with two geared dc motor individually.
The third wheel is a caster wheel located on the front of the vehicle. The two dc motors are
connected with Arduino microcontroller through a motor driver IC L293D. The Arduino
microcontroller is placed over the chassis with the motor driver IC and the HC-05 module as
shown in Fig. 3. The two dc motors located on the back side are required for the four
movements of the vehicle. The four movements are forward, backward, left turn and right
turn. Now these four movements of the vehicle are controlled by the brain signal through the
Arduino microcontroller. Therefore proper mapping of the signal from EEG headset to
Arduino microcontroller through Bluetooth module HC-05 is required. And thereafter from
Arduino to the dc motor through IC L293D.
The Arduino microcontroller is based on the ATmega328. It has 14 digital input/output pins.
The 6 pins can be used as PWM outputs, 6 pins as analog inputs, one 16 MHz crystal
oscillator, one USB connection, one power jack, one ICSP header, and one reset button.
Simply one USB cable is connected to a computer to get power or programme it. The
Arduino is very low cost, open source and easy programming environment.

3 Experimental Setup Analysis

The EEG based robotic vehicle consist of mainly three devices. One Neurosky Mindwave
Mobile Headset, one robotic vehicle and one laptop. Out of these three only the robotic
vehicle is assembled by the authors. As it is stated in the section 2.4 that the robotic vehicle is
having three wheels. The Arduino microcontroller, the Bluetooth module HC-05 and the
motor driver IC L293D are kept on the chassis of the vehicle. The vehicle can freely move
everywhere in the plane surface. The EEG headset is mapped with the Arduino module
hence with the robotic vehicle. The movement analysis depending upon the attention level is
monitored in the laptop either MATLAB or Neuroview software. The working frequency
band of the brain signal is also kept in record using the software. The overall prototype setup
is shown in the Fig.3.

Fig. 3. Experimental setup

4 Result and Discussion

The operation frequency band of the captured brain signal by the sensor is (16-31Hz) i.e. β
wave. This signal has been taken in to the laptop and analyzed with the help of MATLAB
software. The raw signal captured from one user’s forehead is depicted on Figure 4. Here
1000 data has been taken with a baud rate of 57600 via a serial port of the computer.
The frequency spectrum of the data is analyzed and given in the Fig.5. From FFT result it is
observed that the first pick of the signal arrived at the frequency of 17.4 Hz. Therefore it is a
β wave signal. There are also so many pick before the sampling frequency. It is because of
the artefacts presents in the brain signal which is the major disadvantage of the EEG signals.

Fig. 4. Raw brain wave signal Fig. 5. FFT of the acquired brain signal
The potential generated at brains are generally consists of a very low voltage of the order of
few microvolts. Such a low voltage signal is not enough for driving any kind of application.
So in the headset a signal conditioning circuit is available which converts those microvolts
analog signal to a digital signal and makes them more preferable for the next stage of
processing. The HC-05 Bluetooth module is used to transfer those digitalized signal to
Arduino in the form of packets. During the operation of the HC-05, it works on 57600 baud
rate. The Arduino receives those packets and read those packets by opening it. As per the
different signals generated by the brain the Arduino takes necessary actions corresponding to
the data received by the Arduino through the Tx pin. Rx and Tx pins are generally used for
serial communication. After reading those signals the Arduino gives the digitalized output to
the motor driver. The motor driver is used as the voltage output of the Arduino is not
sufficient to drive a motor, thus L293D motor driver can be given external supply which
directly drops to the motor output pins of the driver IC. The direction of the rotation of the
two motors depends upon the specific signals generated by the brain i.e. the sketch uploaded
to the microcontroller (Arduino). The Motor generated voltage is given in the Table 2.
Table2. Motor output Voltage and Torque
Motors Motor Motor
Output Torque
Voltage
Motor 1 6.3V 1.5Kg.Cm
Motor 2 6.5V 1.5Kg.Cm
Depending upon the different attention level of the human the movement of the robotic
vehicle is also different. As there are four movement directions of the vehicle are available,
so the four ranges of attentions is required. The Table 3 is prepared on the basis of the
performance of the user’s attention level and the corresponding movement of the vehicle.
Table3. Direction of Robotic Vehicle with user’s Attention Level
Attention Movement of Rotation of Motor
Level the Robotic
Vehicle
Left Motor Right Motor
0-10 Stop No Rotation No Rotation
11-20 Left Turn Forward Backward
21-30 Right Turn Backward Forward
31-40 Backward Backward Backward
41-50 Forward Forward Forward

The robotic vehicle has been tested also for the accuracy. And it is found 70% accuracy in a
week of training of the user. The accuracy is may be increased further by increasing the time
for the training. The training has been done by asking the user to follow the command given
by another person. The test result are tabulated in Table 4.

Table 4. Accuracy Test Result

Movement of User 1 User 2

Robotic Vehicle Attention Level Attention Level
(Task Given to (Trained for a (Untrained),
User) week), Task Task Performed
Performed
Stop 5 (stop) 18 (Left Turn)
Left Turn 15 (Left Turn) 24 (Right Turn)
Right Turn 21 (Right Turn) 17 (Left Turn)
Backward 32 (Backward) 34 (Backward)
Forward 60 (No Operation) 57 (No
Operation)
Stop 19 (Left Turn) 12 (Left Turn)
Left Turn 25 (Right Turn) 23 (Right Turn)
Right Turn 20 (Right Turn) 50 (Forward)
Backward 36 (Backward) 67 (No
Operation)
Forward 49 (Forward) 48 (Forward)
Accuracy 70% 20%
 5 Conclusion

This paper includes the use of EEG waves for controlling a human assistive robotic vehicle
through BCI (Attention) by using a medium of Arduino and Bluetooth HC-05. Further it
includes the programming of Arduino and the Bluetooth, while proving the HC 05 with AT
commands for the automatic pairing of the headset and the HC-05 module. It is intended that
this paper explains about the EEG waves of a person using MATLAB and how to receive
them using a Bluetooth module over to the Arduino and then generate the output. The
application of this type robotic system will become perfect after a short period of training of
the brain.

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