Making a DIY Mind Controlled Robot
Mind control has always been considered a thing of legends and never a practical thing to achieve till the end of the 20th century. With the entry of EEG sensors and programmable robots, jaw-dropping inventions have already been created combining these technologies.
For DIY enthusiasts all over the world, the availability of these sensors, boards, and other electronic equipment at cheap prices meant a definite step up in their projects.
With simple hardware such as an Arduino, EEG sensors, and a couple of motors and wires, you can now build your very own Mind-controlled robot. In this project, this technique is effectively used to control the movement of a wheelchair.
The core idea behind mind controlling is using the signals generated by EEG sensors while it is attached to a person’s head. Based on the level of focus or relaxation level of the person’s mind, the different signals obtained could be programmed to create desirable action via an Arduino and motors.
DIY Mind Controlled Robot Components Used:
- Mind Flex
- AAA batteries for the headset
- Arduino
- Some hookup wire.
- A PC
- L293D Motor Driver IC
- DC Motor Driver Board
- DC Motor Power Supply
Flex your Mind with Mindflex
Since Mindflex is the device used to create this awesome mind-controlled wheelchair, it’s useful to know how it works so that you could come up with even more use cases. It’s basically a toy that employs brain frequency to move a ball across a field of obstacles.
Electrodes in the Mindflex headset can catch brain waves that differ in frequency while we focus or relax. This changing data is transferred via Bluetooth to the ball which then moves accordingly. In this project though, we modify the circuitry Mindflex to transmit the signals to the Neurosky EEG chip, which we can then send to our Arduino board to control whatever mechanism that we’ve designed.
MindFlex and Brain Signals
Our brain creates a lot of electromagnetic waves, which are not new information. From sleep waves called Delta waves to High Gamma waves, our brain creates waves of specific frequency based on the activity it is engaged in. Although these values differ from person to person, we could use a general range of frequency for our project.
Applications of BCI (Brain Computer Interface)
- Wheelchair controls – from the project tutorial you’ll see how to make a DIY mind-controlled wheelchair. A motorized wheelchair could be freed up from hand controls to help people with disabilities move more freely.
- Prosthetic hand – There are already advancements in this technology being employed in the prosthetic industry. With the possibility of more human-like movement and convenience without using any preset commands is in itself a great relief for patients who use them. Also, the arm could now be programmed to do even more operations than ever before.
- Assistive robots – Drones, factory robots, and industries that require human control could benefit from this technology. As the human effort is fairly limited to controlling the machine remotely, their possibilities in military applications are yet to be discovered fully.
Lets Start Making
Now, we will start making our own Mind Controlled Robot using mindflex and Arduino.
