This Research Topic presents bio-inspired and neurological insights for the development of intelligent robotic control algorithms. This aims to bridge the inter-disciplinary gaps between neuroscience and robotics to accelerate the pace of research and development.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second IFIP WG 5.5/SOCOLNET Doctoral Conference on Computing, Electrical and Industrial Systems, DoCEIS 2011, held in Costa de Caparica, Portugal, in February 2011. The 67 revised full papers were carefully selected from numerous submissions. They cover a wide spectrum of topics ranging from collaborative enterprise networks to microelectronics. The papers are organized in topical sections on collaborative networks, service-oriented systems, computational intelligence, robotic systems, Petri nets, sensorial and perceptional systems, sensorial systems and decision, signal processing, fault-tolerant systems, control systems, energy systems, electrical machines, and electronics.

This book discusses the basic requirements and constraints in building a brain–computer interaction system. These include the technical requirements for building the signal processing module and the acquisition module. The major aspects to be considered when designing a signal acquisition module for a brain–computer interaction system are the human brain, types and applications of brain–computer systems, and the basics of EEG (electroencephalogram) recording. The book also compares the algorithms that have been and that can be used to design the signal processing module of brain–computer interfaces, and describes the various EEG-acquisition devices available and compares their features and inadequacies. Further, it examines in detail the use of Emotiv EPOC (an EEG acquisition module developed by Emotiv) to build a complete brain–computer interaction system for driving robots using a neural network classification module.

Brain-computer interface (BCI) technology provides a means of communication that allows individuals with severely impaired movement to communicate with assistive devices using the electroencephalogram (EEG) or other brain signals. The practicality of a BCI has been possible due to advances in multi-disciplinary areas of research related to cognitive neuroscience, brain-imaging techniques and human-computer interfaces. However, two major challenges remain in making BCI for assistive robotics practical for day-to-day use: the inherent lower bandwidth of BCI, and how to best handle the unknown embedded noise within the raw EEG. Brain-Computer Interfacing for Assistive Robotics is a result of research focusing on these important aspects of BCI for real-time assistive robotic application. It details the fundamental issues related to non-stationary EEG signal processing (filtering) and the need of an alternative approach for the same. Additionally, the book also discusses techniques for overcoming lower bandwidth of BCIs by designing novel use-centric graphical user interfaces. A detailed investigation into both these approaches is discussed. - An innovative reference on the brain-computer interface (BCI) and its utility in computational neuroscience and assistive robotics - Written for mature and early stage researchers, postgraduate and doctoral students, and computational neuroscientists, this book is a novel guide to the fundamentals of quantum mechanics for BCI - Full-colour text that focuses on brain-computer interfacing for real-time assistive robotic application and details the fundamental issues related with signal processing and the need for alternative approaches - A detailed introduction as well as an in-depth analysis of challenges and issues in developing practical brain-computer interfaces.

The ability to direct a robot using only human thoughts could provide a powerful mechanism for human-robot interaction with a wide range of potential applications including medical robotics, search-and-rescue operations, and industrial manufacturing. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are systems that allow the user to control a computer with only their thoughts, providing a promising research area for new methods of robotic control. They could be used to control the navigation of a robotic wheelchair, an assistive or telepresence robot that performs errands, or even the movement of a prosthetic limb. In this work I present the design and evaluation of the first BCI to use four imagined movements recorded via functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to control both a virtual and a physical robot. The BCI is used to navigate the robot to a goal location in a room, a prototype and initial step towards remote control of a telepresence or assistive robot. Four imagined movement tasks (tapping of the left hand, right hand, left foot, and right foot) are mapped to high-level commands (turn left, turn right, walk forwards, walk backwards) to direct the robot. The ability to reliably distinguish multiple mental tasks is essential for use in a practical BCI. In an offline analysis I compare the activation patterns generated during both motor imagery and motor execution (actual movement). This is the first analysis of the activation patterns recorded via fNIRS separately for left and right foot motor imagery tasks. Signal processing, feature extraction, and machine learning methods are integral parts of BCI design. In an additional offline analysis I compare classification results using eight methods of signal preprocessing that have been suggested for use in fNIRS BCIs. I also provide comparisons of two commonly-used classifiers in BCIs as well as feed-forward and convolutional neural networks. Additionally I present the results of a five-class classification task, adding a resting state to the four motor imagery tasks, which could potentially increase the number of inputs available to the BCI.

The 1st International Maghreb Meeting of the conference on Sciences and Techniques of Automatic control and computer engineering MI STA 2021 is an innovative Meeting, covering all aspects of automatic control and computer engineering, Computer Technologies and Applications, Renewable Energy, Smart Grid and Mechatronics The core track is accompanied by a series of workshops and poster sessions

Abstract: "This thesis describes a brain-computer interface (BCI) system that was developed to allow direct cortical control of 7 active degrees of freedom in a robotic arm. Two monkeys with chronic microelectrode implants in their motor cortices were able to use the arm to complete an oriented grasping task under brain control. This BCI system was created as a clinical prototype to exhibit (1) simultaneous decoding of cortical signals for control of the 3-D translation, 3-D rotation, and 1-D finger aperture of a robotic arm and hand, (2) methods for constructing cortical signal decoding models based on only observation of a moving robot, (3) a generalized method for training subjects to use complex BCI prosthetic robots using a novel form of operator-machine shared control, and (4) integrated kinematic and force control of a brain-controlled prosthetic robot through a novel impedance-based robot controller. This dissertation describes each of these features individually, how their integration enriched BCI control, and results from the monkeys operating the resulting system."

The present stage of the human civilization is the e-society, which is build over the achievements obtained by the development of the information and communication technologies. It affects everyone, from ordinary mobile phone users to designers of high quality industrial products, and every human activity, from taking medical care to improving the state governing. The science community working in computer sciences and informatics is therefore under constant challenge; it has to solve the new appeared theoretical problem as well as to find new practical solutions. The fourth ICT Innovations Conference, held in September 2012 in Ohrid, Macedonia, was one of the several world-wide forums where academics, professionals and practitioners presented their last scientific results and development applications in the fields of high performance and parallel computing, bioinformatics, human computer interaction, security and cryptography, computer and mobile networks, neural networks, cloud computing, process verification, improving medical care, improving quality of services, web technologies, hardware implementations, cultural implication. In this book the best 37 ranked articles are presented.