EEG error potentials detection and classification using time-frequency features for robot reinforcement learning

In thought-based steering of robots, error potentials (ErrP) can appear when the action resulting from the brain-machine interface (BMI) classifier/controller does not correspond to the user´s thought. Using the Steady State Visual Evoked Potentials (SSVEP) techniques, ErrP, which appear when a classification error occurs, are not easily recognizable by only examining the temporal or frequency characteristics of EEG signals. A supplementary classification process is therefore needed to identify them in order to stop the course of the action and back up to a recovery state. This paper presents a set of time-frequency (t-f) features for the detection and classification of EEG ErrP in extra-brain activities due to misclassification observed by a user exploiting non-invasive BMI and robot control in the task space. The proposed features are able to characterize and detect ErrP activities in the t-f domain. These features are derived from the information embedded in the t-f representation of EEG signals, and include the Instantaneous Frequency (IF), t-f information complexity, SVD information, energy concentration and sub-bands´ energies. The experiment results on real EEG data show that the use of the proposed t-f features for detecting and classifying EEG ErrP achieved an overall classification accuracy up to 97% for 50 EEG segments using 2-class SVM classifier.