BRAIN CONTROLLED

WHEELCHAIR
Submitted by:
Aishwarya.S.Kalburgi
(3PD14IS004)

Under the guidance of

Dr. Bharati Harsoor
 Abstract
 Independent mobility is a necessity to live everyday life for human
beings.
 A person with physical challenges has restricted mobility. For these
people, Brain Computer Interface (BCI) provides a promising solution.
 Using Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals for movement of wheelchair
the mobility of these persons can be improved.
 It is based on Artificial Neural Network (ANN) algorithm . This
presents Mu rhythm signals that provide commands to wheelchair.
 Using wireless link between head gear and computer, commands to
control the wheelchair can be issued.
Contents
 INTRODUCTION.
 WHAT IS BCI ?
 ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM.
 DESIGN.
 PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS.
 ADVANTAGES.
 DISADVANTAGES.
 APPLICATIONS.
 CONCLUSION.
 REFERENCES.
 Introduction
 Now a day’s robot becomes an essential thing in industrial as well as in
human life. These robots can provide a support to disabled people in
their day today life.
 A brain controlled wheelchair is one of the steps toward prime
utilization of robot in human life.
 A healthy person can operate wheelchair with the help of joystick,
keyboard etc. But a person who does not have control on their
muscle are unable to use these.
 For these reasons some special technique has been proposed like eye
tracking and many others, but it has some limitations.
 To overcome such challenges Brain Computer Interface (BCI) system
has been developed which bypass all conventional methods.
 It directly interfaces brain of human being with communication
devices. In this system brain sends command directly to physical
devices.
 What is BCI ?
 Paralysis is the inability whether temporary or permanent to move a
part of the body. In almost all cases, paralysis is due to nerve damage.
 Due to this brain is unable to relay a signal to an area of the body due
to injuries to the brain.
 Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) also known as “direct neural interface”
can provide a direct communication and interaction channel between
the user’s brain and the computer.
 BCI provides a new direction to construct an interactive system which
can translate human Channel based on brain waves and muscles to
allow users to communicate without movement with the external
world.
 A BCI system is just to translate EEG signals from a reflection of brain
activity into user action through system's hardware and software.
What is BCI?(Contd)
Basically there are two types of Brain Computer Interface techniques,
invasive and non-invasive technique.
1. In invasive technique the brain signals are recorded by implanting
electrodes directly into cortex of brain.
2. In non-invasive technique electrodes are placed on scalp of brain.

Electroencephalography (EEG) is an example of non-invasive

technique of detecting brain activity.

FIG 1: Non-invasive technique

 Electroencephalogram(EEG)
 EEG is a technique of recording a electrical activity along the scalp
produced by firing of neurons within the brain.
 EEG refers to the recording of the brain's spontaneous electrical activity
over a short period of time as recorded from multiple electrodes placed
on the scalp.
 EEG is generated due to the neuron. Potential generated by neurons
travels down, resulting into neurotransmitter.
 This neurotransmitter activates receptor in dendrite. By combination of
receptor and neurotransmitter electric signal is generated which can
measure at scalp.
 This voltage ranges from 1uV to 100uV.
 This generating voltage is called EEG signal. This may vary according to
brain activities of human being.
 The EEG signals which are generated are classified into different types
according to their frequency range. They are Delta, Theta, Alpha, Mu and
Beta.
 Occurrence of these waves depends upon different activities performed
by brain.
Electroencephalogram (Contd)
TABLE 1: FREQUENCY CLASSIFICATION TABLE
WAVES FREQUECY LOCATION USE

Delta <4 Hz Everywhere. During sleeping ,coma.

Theta 4-7 Hz Temporal and parietal. During emotional stress.

Alpha 8-12 Hz Occipital and parietal. Reduce amplitude during

mental imaginary.

Mu 9-11 Hz Frontal Reduces amplitudes with

intention of movement.

Beta 12-36 Hz Parietal and frontal Increase amplitude during

intense mental activity.

For this system Mu rhythm is used.These Mu waves are

located in frontal position of brain.
Design
This system mainly depends upon EEG waveforms. Brainwave sensor,
Matlab and ARM Controller are the key parameters of system.

FIG 2: OVERVIEW OF SYSTEM

Design(Contd)
A. Brainwave Sensor: It is a single node point sensor consisting of dry electrodes.
Gold-plated dry electrodes were used for system which consists of a single
channel having three contacts points i.e. EEG, Reference and Ground. Mu signals
generated at frontal node (FP1) point detect and transmit data towards computer
system. Transmitted data is in packet form.
B. Computer System: Computer system mainly consists of software based
analysis,Matlab analyzed data which is generated from sensor. The level of
attention is compared with reference level and generates a command for
movement. This algorithm gets values from sensor and analyzes it and generates
respective command.
C. Robotic Module: ARM7 controller receives commands from Matlab and
generates respective interrupt signals. These interrupt signals provide command
to wheelchair movement. M1 and M2 motors used for movement are attached to
wheels.

TABLE 2: Movement achieved with different M1 and M2 combinations.

M1 M2 FUNCTION
LOW HIGH TURN RIGHT
HIGH LOW TURN LEFT
LOW LOW STOP MOVING
HIGH HIGH MOVE FORWARD
 Performance analysis
 Before starting execution of system , some concentration level of different
users has been taken.
 It has been found that concentration levels of users were not being same.
It was being varied from person to person.
 Fig 3 illustrates concentration level of user at different points.
 X-axis and Y-axis represents time and concentration level respectively.
 It was found that an average concentration of a user was 70%. So it was a
reference value for that user.
 By considering this reference value ANN module performed commanding
operation for wheelchair.
Performance analysis(Contd)

FIG 3:CONCENTRATON LEVEL OF PERSON

Performance analysis(Contd)
It was found that when the patient was doing some other work simultaneously
the concentration level was reduced as shown in figure 4.
When the line attains 0 it means that the patient should try to concentrate
with full attention.
By this patient’s attention level can be increased.

FIG 4:COMBINED GRAPH OF CONCENTRATION AND EYE

BLINKING

COMBINED
Performance analysis(Contd)

When movement was started, initially wheelchair was at stop condition.

User starts to think move forward then after some negligible delayed time

wheelchair moves forward.

When the patient starts to think stop it will stop immediately.

Advantages
 To reduce user effort in controlling the wheelchair
 To ensure the safety during movement.
 A smart wheelchair using inexpensive hardware and open source
software.
 To monitor the activity of the person in real time using webcam.
 The designed system is portable for the user.
Disadvantages
 The fixing of the electrodes must be done before any further
course.
 The mental state must be stable at all times.
 Some training is must before it is fully efficient and used for
practical purposes.
Applications
 The developments in the field of brain-computer interface
are a juvenile step towards the improvements of the
wheelchair.
 The wheelchair controls only 2 wheels whereas the same
condition may be used to drive a car with 4 wheels.
 The functionality of the brain can be used to trounce many
other manual works at industries as well as at house-hold
levels.
 The day-to-day gadgets may be evolved to work using mind

waves.
 Conclusion
 Utilization of EEG signals are a significant research area which help
physically challenged people.
 Brain controlled wheelchair is slow but reliable method for physically
challenged person.
 This system uses an ANN to overcome the previous challenges and to
achieve higher accuracy.
 Stability of system depends upon user thoughts, so users have to take
more training of system.
References
 Luzheng Bi, Xin-An Fan,Yili Liu, “EEG-Based Brain-Controlled
Mobile Robots: A Survey” IEEE transactions on human-machine
systems, vol. 43, no. 2, march 2013
 Jonathan R. Wolpawa, Niels Birbaumerc, Dennis J. McFarlanda, Gert
Pfurtschellere, Theresa M.Vaughana “Brain–computer interfaces for
communication and control” Elsevier/Clinical Neurophysiology 113
(2002) 767–791.
 Kazuo Tanaka, Kazuyuki Matsunaga, and Hua O. Wang
“Electroencephalogram-Based Control of an Electric Wheelchair”
IEEE transactions on robotics, vol. 21, no. 4, august 2005
 Junichi Miyata,Yukiko Kaida, and Toshiyuki Murakami, “v–˙φ-
Coordinate-Based Power-Assist Control of Electric Wheelchair for
a Caregiver” IEEE transactions on industrial electronics, vol. 55, no.
6, june 2008
 B. Rebsamen, C. Guan, H. Zhang, C. Wang, C. Teo, M. H. Ang, Jr., and
E. Burdet, “A brain controlled wheelchair to navigate in familiar
environments,” IEEE Trans. Neural Syst. Rehabil. Eng., vol. 18, no. 6,
pp. 590–598, Dec. 2010.
THANK
YOU