Researchers have developed a brain-controlled robotic arm that can give its user touch feedback—even if they're paralyzed
Copeland was excited. “The inclusion criteria for studies like this is very small,” he recalls. You have to have the right injury, the right condition, and even live near the right medical hub. “I thought from the beginning: I can do it, I'm able to—so how can I not help push the science forward?”
Of the four micro-electrode arrays implanted in Copeland’s brain, two grids read movement intentions from his motor cortex to command the robotic arm, and two grids stimulate his sensory system. From the start, the research team knew that they could use the BCI to create tactile sensation for Copeland simply by delivering electrical current to those electrodes—no actual touching or robotics required.
Think of a robotic finger as a lever with a hinge on just one end where it connects to the robot’s palm. The robotic fingers want to stay put unless the BCI is telling them to move. Any nudge forward or back along the length of the finger will register a rotational force at that hinge. “It is maybe not the most obvious sensor to use,” says Robert Gaunt, who co-led the study with Collinger, but it proved to be very reliable.
And it’s important, he says, that the action happens without any noticeable lag. The brain operates with a lag of about 30 milliseconds . But the robot communicates signals to the BCI every 20 milliseconds. That underpins one of the most important roles of touch in this advance, according to Ajiboye, because it means that the user canthe robot hand’s actions in real time. And that feeling registers much faster than sight.
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