Development of an Autonomous BCI Wheelchair

Restoration of mobility for the movement impaired is one of the important goals for numerous Brain Computer Interface (BCI) systems. In this study, subjects used a steady state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) based BCI to select a desired destination. The selected destination was communicated to the wheelchair navigation system that controlled the wheelchair autonomously avoiding obstacles on the way to the destination. By transferring the responsibility of controlling the wheel chair from the subject to the navigation software, the number of BCI decisions needed to be completed by the subject to move to the desired destination is greatly reduced.