{"id":19793,"date":"2017-12-01T11:00:50","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T16:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=19793"},"modified":"2023-11-22T13:21:59","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T18:21:59","slug":"utc-students-research-project-controls-drones-using-brainwaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2017\/12\/utc-students-research-project-controls-drones-using-brainwaves\/","title":{"rendered":"UTC students’ research project controls drones using brainwaves"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the SimCenter’s Unmanned Drone Lab, a mind-controlled drone hovers in mid-air.<\/p><\/div>\n

Buzzing like a mammoth insect, the four-prop drone lifts off the ground, rising straight up. Once it reaches about four feet, it hovers for a bit, then slowly settles back to the ground.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t seem like much of a flight until you understand how it happened.<\/p>\n

No handheld controls, no tether, no nothing.<\/p>\n

Just brain waves.<\/p>\n

Tony Ferguson sits about 12 feet away at a laptop. As he works in what has been dubbed the Unmanned Systems Lab, on top of his head is a lattice of white plastic dotted with blue electrodes about the size of a thumb. The electrodes, which register brainwave activity, can be tightened to firmly hold the entire device in place.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, at the skull-touching end, the electrodes have a circle of tiny points\u2014little needles, basically\u2014and they tend to dig into the flesh. Not enough to draw blood, but enough to make anyone wearing the headgear want to take it off as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese things are pretty uncomfortable; they stick and they aren\u2019t fun. About an hour is all I can take,\u201d Ferguson says, several small, reddish circles indented in the skin of his forehead just short of the hairline.<\/p>\n

But the pain is worth it, he says, because his goal is to develop technology that will allow control all aspects of the drone simply through thought. Want it to move right? Think about it. Want it to take a photo with its camera? Imagine it.<\/p>\n

\u201cVisualization in the brain would control the drone,\u201d says Ferguson, an electrical engineering major.<\/p>\n

Future uses<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Dr. Zach Ruble, a researcher in the Departments of Engineering and Electrical Engineering and director of the drone project, pictures a future in which one person can control multiple drones by thought. A separate research project that uses infrared light to control a swarm of drones\u2014led by electrical engineering student Artem Malashiy\u2014is taking place alongside the project on brain-wave control.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, we want to detect patterns in the brainwaves such that we can give abstract commands to multiple drones,\u201d Ruble says. \u201cSo instead of giving a basic command such as \u2018take off\u2019 or \u2018land,\u2019 we can send out an abstract command such as \u2018search and rescue.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter receiving the command, the swarm of drones will determine what needs to be done in order to carry out that command and execute the mission autonomously.\u201d<\/p>\n

A smaller, more comfortable headset should be possible as the technology develops, Ferguson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could have military applications, search-and-rescue applications, etc. Obviously, prosthetics has a huge, huge application here,\u201d says Ferguson, a former Marine who served spent time under fire in Iraq\u2019s war-torn Fallujah.<\/p>\n

In the current setup, his brainwaves are fed into his laptop, which sends a Wi-Fi signal to a second computer that, in turn, sends a wireless signal to the drone. The second computer, manned by Ed Steele, a graduate student in electrical engineering, contains the software that actually controls the drone. Steele developed the software and, without his work, the project would not be possible, Ferguson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did all the groundwork, all the legwork, to fly the drone,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Both spent several months just getting the drone to move up and down, and both say the work took longer than they wanted, but now they want more. Much more.<\/p>\n

Following footsteps<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Using brainwaves to control robotics limbs is nothing new, but those rely on implants in the brain that fire nerves and send electric impulses to microprocessors in the limbs. What Ferguson and other members of the project team have plans that are difficult to create but will ultimately make things easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m following in the footsteps of stuff that\u2019s gone before, but the thought avenue is what I\u2019m focusing on, to be able to control things just by thinking,\u201d says Ferguson, who adds that, until he joined the drone project in January, \u201chad no idea\u201d that this type of technology was even available much less usable.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s in the process of creating a wide \u201cvocabulary\u201d for drone control and says he hopes to have that done by the end of December. Creating a wider command list is another step to increase the drone\u2019s capabilities, Ruble says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, if we can detect a pattern in the EEG signals that differentiates a person moving his left arm versus moving his right arm, we can generate two different commands based off which arm the person is moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferguson says he\u2019s \u201ctrying to get gesture control, the brainwave response for this\u201d\u2014 he moves his right arm up and down\u2014\u201cto fly the drone left or right, I will move on to purely thought,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done it a little bit; it\u2019s kind of hard to do.\u201d<\/p>\n