Mental states, EEG manifestations, and mentally emulated digital circuits for brain-robot interaction

Abstract

This paper focuses on electroencephalogram (EEG) manifestations of mental states and actions, emulation of control and communication structures using EEG manifestations, and their application in brain-robot interactions. The paper introduces a mentally emulated demultiplexer, a device which uses mental actions to demultiplex a single EEG channel into multiple digital commands. The presented device is applicable in controlling several objects through a single EEG channel. The experimental proof of the concept is given by an obstacle-containing trajectory which should be negotiated by a robotic arm with two degrees of freedom, controlled by mental states of a human brain using a single EEG channel. The work is presented in the framework of Human-Robot interaction (HRI), specifically in the framework of brain-robot interaction (BRI). This work is a continuation of a previous work on developing mentally emulated digital devices, such as a mental action switch, and a mental states flip-flop.