Evaluating commercial BCIs for moving robots

Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) are interfaces that put the user in communication with an electronic device mainly through brain signals. BCIs may offer promising applications for impaired patient assistance by controlling computers and/or robotic devices based on the patient's intentions. Non-invasive BCIs are needed for users acceptance, but they have several issues, as signals generated by the brain are dampened by the skull. In this paper, we propose some practical usage examples of two non-invasive commercial BCIs, experimented in a set of active tasks to control robot's movements. Through experiments, the commercial BCIs showed initial promising results, even if other complementary inputs were also used, e.g. and electromyography bracelet and eye and clench movements.