Monkey Controlls Robotic Arm with Brain

[chomerics]

http://newsbureau.upmc.com/TX/SchwartzArmResearch2005.htm

BRAIN CONTROLS PROSTHETIC ARM IN MONKEY, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH RESEARCHER REPORTS AT AAAS

Research represents big step toward development of brain-controlled artificial limbs for people

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17, 2005 – Reaching for something you want seems a simple enough task, but not for someone with a prosthetic arm, in whom the brain has no control over such fluid, purposeful movements. Yet according to research presented at the 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting, scientists have made significant strides to create a permanent artificial device that can restore deliberate mobility to patients with paralyzing injuries.

The concept is that, through thought alone, a person could direct a robotic arm – a neural prosthesis – to reach and manipulate a desired object.

As a step toward that goal, University of Pittsburgh researchers report that a monkey outfitted with a child-sized robotic arm controlled directly by its own brain signals is able to feed itself chunks of fruits and vegetables. The researchers trained the monkey to feed itself by using signals from its brain that are passed through tiny electrodes, thinner than a human hair, and fed into a specially designed algorithm that tells the arm how to move.

“The beneficiaries of such technology will be patients with spinal cord injuries or nervous system disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS,” said Andrew Schwartz, Ph.D., professor of neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and senior researcher on the project.

The neural prosthesis moves much like a natural arm, with a fully mobile shoulder and elbow and a simple gripper that allows the monkey to grasp and hold food while its own arms are restrained.

Computer software interprets signals picked up by tiny probes inserted into neuronal pathways in the motor cortex, a brain region where voluntary movement originates as electrical impulses. The neurons’ collective activity is then fed through the algorithm and sent to the arm, which carries out the actions the monkey intended to perform with its own limb.

The primary motor cortex, a part of the brain that controls movement, has thousands of nerve cells, called neurons, that fire like Geiger counters. These neurons are sensitive to movement in different directions. The direction in which a neuron fires fastest is called its “preferred direction.” For each arm movement, no matter how subtle, thousands of motor cortical cells change their firing rate, and collectively, that signal, along with signals from other brain structures, is routed through the spinal cord to the different muscle groups needed to generate the desired movement.

Because of the sheer volume of neurons that fire in concert to allow even the most simple of movements, it would be impossible to create probes that could eavesdrop on them all. The Pitt researchers overcame that obstacle by developing a special algorithm that uses the limited information from relatively few neurons to fill in the missing signals. The algorithm decodes the cortical signals like a voting machine by using each cell’s preferred direction as a label and taking a continuous tally of the population throughout the intended movement.

Monkeys were trained to reach for targets. Then, with electrodes placed in the brain, the algorithm was adjusted to assume the animal was intending to reach for those targets. For the task, food was placed at different locations in front of the monkey, and the animal, with its own arms restrained, used the robotic arm to bring the food to its mouth.

“When the monkey wants to move its arm, cells are activated in the motor cortex,” said Dr. Schwartz. “Each of those cells activates at a different intensity depending on the direction the monkey intends to move its arm. The direction that produces the greatest intensity is that cell’s preferred direction. The average of the preferred directions of all of the activated cells is called the population vector. We can use the population vector to accurately predict the velocity and direction of normal arm movement, and in the case of this prosthetic, it serves as the control signal to convey the monkey’s intention to the prosthetic arm.”

Because the software had to rely on a small number of the thousands of neurons needed to move the arm, the monkey did the rest of the work, learning through biofeedback how to refine the arm’s movements by modifying the firing rates of the recorded neurons.

In recent weeks, Dr. Schwartz and his team were able to improve the algorithms to make it easier for the monkey to learn how to operate the arm. The improvements also will allow them to develop more sophisticated brain devices with smooth, responsive and highly precise movement. They are now working to develop a prosthesis with realistic hand and finger movements. Because of the complexity of a human hand and the movements it needs to make, the researchers expect it to be a major challenge.

Others involved in the research include Meel Velliste, Ph.D., a Pitt post-doctoral fellow in the Schwartz lab; Chance Spalding, a Pitt bioengineering graduate student; and Anthony Brockwell, Ph.D., Valerie Ventura, Ph.D., Robert Kass, Ph.D., and graduate student Cari Kaufman from the Statistics Department at Carnegie Mellon University.

The research was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health.

I don't this this technology is that far off, maybe 10 years or so depending on funding levels.

[China]

Brain, brain what is brain?

[georgiaredskin]

http://newsbureau.upmc.com/TX/SchwartzArmResearch2005.htm

I don't this this technology is that far off, maybe 10 years or so depending on funding levels.

It may be much closer than that!

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_65146.html

WEDNESDAY, May 28 (HealthDay News) -- Relying solely on brain signal manipulation, monkeys have learned to operate human-like robotic arms to feed themselves, U.S. researchers reported Wednesday.

This cutting-edge development in the field of neuro-prosthetics was made possible by linking up neural pathways in the voluntary movement region of the monkey's brain to a specially designed computer software program. In turn, the monkey's mental "firings" were turned into fluid and natural prosthetic movements -- enabling arm-restrained primates to grip and eat marshmallows and fruit with a claw-like robotic hand.

"This a step on the way to fully mobile arms and dexterous prosthetic hand that will be controlled with brain activity recorded directly from the individual brain cells," said the study's lead author, Andrew Schwartz, a professor of neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

The research, published Wednesday in the online edition of Nature, is being touted as a significant advance towards designing functional prosthetic devices for fully paralyzed individuals.

As such, it is a real-world leap beyond Schwartz' own previous endeavors, which explored similar brain-machine connections that would enable monkeys to use their thoughts to manipulate cursor movements on a computer screen.

As with the earlier effort, the current work, done by a research team at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, focused on the primary motor cortex -- the part of the brain where thousands upon thousands of nerve cells fire in unison to issue voluntary movement instructions.

...........

"And in the next couple of years I'm quite sure there'll be humans walking around with these kind of implants," Schwartz added. "I don't think it's very far away at all. In fact, other teams have already implanted a few people with versions of these kind of devices --although they haven't yet matched the kind of performance we achieved with our work."

Amazing! Interesting to see you posted on it over 3 years ago, chom. I can't imagine going into one of my patients' rooms, asking, "Hi Mr. Ross, how are you today? Any problems feeding with your neuro-prosthetic hand?"

Wow. Just wow.

[robotfire]

I want an extra set of arms, just in case mine get tired from flexing awesomely all the time.

[Corcaigh]

Meh ... I've been using my mind to control other people's behavior for a long time.

[AllAboutSkins08]

this is the exact research that i want to go into when i get to grad school, which will be in a year. i read about this kind of stuff last year and it's just so interesting. i've always been interested in the complexities of the brain.

[SparkleMotion]

So could you hook a robot up to somebody while they're dreaming and "watch" their dream actions?

[Bang]

Gentlemen, we can rebuild him.

We have the technology.

We can make him faster...

better,...

stronger than he was before.

The Six Million Dollar Monkey.

Coming soon...

~Bang

[Corcaigh]

So could you hook a robot up to somebody while they're dreaming and "watch" their dream actions?

No. This is where someone (or something) trains their brain patterns to control the robotic arm.

[SkinsOrlando]

Anyone else think of T2 where all they have is the robot arm? And thats the beginning of.................

[jbooma]

saw this on GMA it is pertty amazing if you think about it