A telepresence robotic system operated with a P300-based brain-computer interface: Initial tests with ALS patients

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) open a new valuable communication channel for people with severe neurological or motor degenerative diseases, such as ALS patients. On the other hand, the ability to teleoperate robots in a remote scenario provides a physical entity embodied in a real environment ready to perceive, explore, and interact. The combination of both functionalities provides a system with benefits for ALS patients in the context of neurorehabilitation or maintainment of the neural activity. This paper reports a BCI telepresence system which offers navigation, exploration and bidirectional communication, only controlled by brain activity; and an initial study of applicability with ALS patients. The results show the feasibility of this technology in real patients.