Design and Development of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) for Navigating Drones

Project Title

Project Area of Specialization

NeuroTech

Project Summary

Brain signal acquisition will be done using an electroencephalogram (EEG) headset and transferred to the computer. Preprocessing of these signals to extract specific signals that are related to our specified directions (take off, land, left, right, forward, backward) will be done afterward. Those signals will be used to build a Machine Learning (ML) model to generate input commands for drones. In the end, controlling the drone navigation will be done using those generated inputs from our ML model via any wi-fi technology.

Project Objectives

The main goal of our project is to design and develop a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) system that will help:

To establish one-way communication from brain signals to the desktop application running on our laptop.
To open up the communication between the desktop application and the Drone.
To control drone navigation in three-dimensional (3D) physical space.

Project Implementation Method

The proposed system will have the following methodology:

Emotiv EPOC headset will be used for brain signal acquisition from the subject’s mind via scalp from different channel locations and will be transferred to computer via Bluetooth.
A C# desktop application will be developed that will act as an intermediator between brain and drone. This application will be accountable for receiving raw signals from Emotiv software, applying preprocessing to the signals, and will use Machine Learning (ML) model for signal classification.
The desktop application will generate an output command that will act as an input for the drone and these signals will be transferred to the drone via wi-Fi. The Drone is programmed in python and can be attached to desktop, laptop or remote controller using the Wi-Fi technology.

Benefits of the Project

Our project will be a BCI system for navigating drones by acquiring brain signals. This idea can be pitched and advocated for various domains specifically military operations (attacking the enemy, counter-terrorism or counter-insurgency), education, health (paralyzed persons or people lacking motor skills will be less dependent on others), media, and mass communication coverage (cinematography and photography).